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THE READING PROCESS 






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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
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-. 



THE READING PROCESS 



BY 
WILLIAM A. $MITH 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 

SOUTHERN BRANCH 



&tto got* 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1922 

All rights reserved 






PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 






Copyright, 1922, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1922, 



Press of 

J. J. Litil^ & Ives Company 

New York, U. S. A. 



SEP 1 3 l322 

©CI.A681762 



j^ PREFACE 

i 

This book is not primarily a treatise on methods of 

- teaching reading. It concerns itself rather with the prin- 
ciples which underlie method. Its chief aim is to furnish 
a body of information — psychological, philological, his- 
torical, and experimental — which will enable the teacher 
to develop and use methods intelligently in place of ac- 
cepting them blindly and following them slavishly. 

More than the usual amount of attention is given to 
language — both spoken and written, but especially the 
latter. For this the author makes no apology. There is — 
as is commonly known — no dearth of instruction in the 
vernacular and in foreign languages in our secondary and 
higher institutions of learning. In spite of this, however, 
the majority of those who specialize in languages — either 
English or foreign — are poorly informed regarding the 
genetic and scientific aspects of the English language and 
of language in general. This is due to the fact that the 
students' activities are for the most part directed toward 
the mastery of literature and the acquisition of skill in 
expression — philological aspects being neglected. For the 
teacher whose work lies chiefly in the field of language — 
including the teacher of reading — this is unfortunate since 
it deprives him of the perspective so essential to initiative 
and resourcefulness. The chapters which deal with lan- 
guage and its accessories — for the most part chapters I to 



vi PREFACE 

IV — are, therefore, intended to supply the linguistic in- 
formation most urgently needed by the teacher of 
reading. 

Considerable historical material has been introduced. 
For this, too, no apology is needed since a critical analysis 
of current practices can usually be undertaken most ad- 
vantageously in the light of their development. 

The vast experimental literature which has been pro- 
duced during the last few decades has been freely drawn 
upon. In fact, it constitutes the basis of the discussion 
from beginning to end. The treatment is, therefore, dis- 
tinctly quantitative. Suffice it to say that no other mode 
of approach or method of treatment would be justifiable 
at this stage of educational practice. 

The content of the book — as well as its arrangement — 
is essentially that of a course which the writer gave for 
several years to prospective teachers and supervisors of, 
reading. 

Special acknowledgments are due to my colleagues, 
Mrs. Alice 0. Hunnewell and Miss Katherine L. Mc- 
Laughlin, who have offered many valuable suggestions — 
the former in connection with the chapter on Teaching 
Beginners To Read and the latter in connection with 
the chapter on Content of Readers. 

Acknowledgments are due, also, to Dean W. S. Gray, 
Mr. E. D. Burbank, The American Antiquarian Society, 
The Bureau of American Ethnology, Henry Holt and 
Company, D. Apple ton and Company, Harper and 
Brothers, Ginn and Company, The Macmillan Company, 
and the Simplified Spelling Board for permission to use 
valuable materials. 



PREFACE vii 

For permission to use illustrations, acknowledgments 
are due to The Bureau of American Ethnology for Plate 
I; to D. Appleton and Company for Figures 1, 7, 8, and 
9; to The American Antiquarian Society for Figures 2, 
3, 4, 5, and 6; and to Dean W. S. Gray of the University 
of Chicago for Charts I- VI inclusive. 

Finally, the writer is greatly indebted to the many 
other sources — far too many to mention here — upon 
which he has so freely drawn throughout the discussion. 

Los Angeles, California. 
July, 1922. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Chapter I. Language 

Reading an elaborate form of language behavior — Genuine 
language behavior limited to the human race — Communica- 
tion of feeling attitudes through animal cries— Levels of lan- 
guage development — Language development in the child — 
The nature of meaning — How words acquire meanings — Proc- 
esses entering into the recognition and interpretation of words 
and sentences — Social origin and function of language — Ref- 
erences 1 

Chapter II. The Evolution of Written Language — Picture 
Writing and Transition Stages 

Stages in the evolution of graphic language symbols— I. The 
picture writing stage — 1. The mnemonic — 2. The pictograph 
— 3. The ideograph — Conventionalization and symbolization 
on the ideographic level — II. The transition stage — References 22 

Chapter III. The Evolution of Written Language — The Pho- 
netic Stage 

III. The phonetic stage — 1. The verbal phonogram — The 
Chinese language as an example of the verbal level — 2. The 
syllable as phonogram — The Japanese language as an example 
of the syllabic level — 3. The letter as phonogram — Ancient 
systems of writing which reached the alphabetic level — The 
cuneiform — The Egyptian hieroglyphics — Origin of modern 
alphabets — The evolution of the book — The introduction of 
paper — The invention of printing — The spread of printing — 
The improvement of printing — References 42 

Chapter IV. English Spelling — Present Status and Pending 
Simplification 

Unphonetic character of modern alphabets — The English 
alphabet — Vowel characters representing several sounds — 
Vowel sounds represented by a variety of characters and 
combinations of characters — Irregularities in case of digraphs 
— Relationship between vowel sounds and vowel characters 
in Spanish — The consonant situation — Silent letters — Causes 
leading up to present irregularities — Social bearings of present 

ix 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



system of spelling — Spelling reform — History of reform move- 
ment — -The Simplified Spelling Board — Policy of the Simpli- 
fied Spelling Board — Activities of the Simplified Spelling 
Board — Progress of the simplified spelling movement — The 
Simplified Spelling Society of Great Britain — References . 64 

Chapter V. Teaching Beginners to Read 

Symbols and meanings — Form versus thought — Steps in the 
evolution of modern methods of teaching beginning reading — 
1. The alphabet method — 2. Phonetic methods — >3. The word 
method — 4. The phrase method — 5. The sentence method — 
6. The story method — Modern methods of teaching beginning 
reading — The basis of phonetics — Phonetic facts and prin- 
ciples — 1. The elementary sounds — 2. Phonograms — 3. Pho- 
netic principles — The blend — References 88 

Chapter VI. Analysis of the Reading Process through an 
Investigation of Eye Movement 

Methods employed in the investigation of eye movement- 
Character of interfixation movements and return sweep — The 
fixation pause — The average number of pauses per line — 'The 
duration of the pauses — Perception time — The location of 
pauses — Age differences — Individual differences — Differences 

between oral and silent reading — References 108 

* 

Chapter VII. Perceptual and Interpretative Processes in Read- 
ing 

The visual field — Ruediger's investigation of the visual field — 
The perceptual span — The effect of practice upon the per- 
ceptual span — The nature of the perceptual process in 
reading — Goldscheider and Mueller's investigation — Zeitler's 
investigation — Messmer's investigation — Cattell's and Erd- 
mann and Dodge's investigations — Dearborn's investigation — 
Huey's investigation — Conclusions regarding the nature of the 
perceptual process in reading — The inner speech in reading — 
The experimental study of the problem — Experiments in- 
tended to determine whether inner speech is an essential 
characteristic or merely a superfluous habit — Secor's investi- 
gation — Pintner's investigation — The significance of Pintner's 
results — O'Brien's investigation — References 131 

Chapter VIII. Reading Ability — Its Development and Varia- 
tion 

Early studies of rate and comprehension — Recent investiga- 
tions of rate and comprehension — Waldo's investigation — 



CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

Oberholtzer's investigation — Courtis's investigation — Starch's 
standard scores — Scores obtained through the Kansas Silent 
Heading Tests — Monroe's standard scores — McLeod's investi- 
gation — W. S. Gray's investigations — King's investigations — 
Summary — Individual variation — The development of rate in 
oral reading — The development of rate in silent reading — 
The development of comprehension — Relation between rate 
and comprehension — References 152 

Chapter IX. Oral and Silent Reading — A Comparison 

Oral reading and tradition — Objective character of oral read- 
ing — Oral reading and training in expression — Recent criticism 
of oral reading instruction — Investigations intended to com- 
pare the efficiency of oral and silent reading — Pintner's inves- 
tigation — Pintner and Galliland's investigation — Mead's in- 
vestigations — W. S. Gray's investigation — Judd and Gray's 
investigation in Cleveland — Schmidt's comparison of oral 
and silent reading on the basis of eye movement — Needed 
readjustments in the teaching of reading — The place of 
oral reading — The place of silent reading — Necessity of 
clearly defined aims and carefully worked out methods for 
teaching silent reading — Whipple's investigation of skimming 
— References 179 

Chapter X. The Content of Readers 

Early content chiefly religious — "The New England Primer" — 
Gradual secularization of reading materials — Webster's "Ele- 
mentary Spelling Book" — Early readers — Webster's reader — 
Bingham's readers — Lindley Murray's series — Pierpont's series 
— Cobb's series — Mid-century readers — The McGuffey read- 
ers — Late nineteenth and early twentieth century readers — 
Current readers — Special and supplementary readers — The 
future of the school reader — References 198 

Chapter XL Standard Tests for Measuring Reading Ability 

Tests measuring mastery of words as phonograms — The 
Jones Scale for Teaching and Testing Elementary Reading — 
The Haggerty Scales for Reading Vocabulary of Primary 
Children — Gray's Standard Oral Reading Test — Tests measur- 
ing mastery of word meanings — The Thorndike Visual Vo- 
cabulary Scales — The Haggerty Visual Vocabulary Scales — 
The Starch English Vocabulary Test — Tests measuring com- 
prehension of sentences and paragraphs — The Thorndike Scales 
for Measuring the Understanding of Sentences and Para- 
graphs — The Thorndike-McCall Reading Scale for the Under- 
standing of Sentences — The Haggerty Reading Examination — 



xii CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Sigma 1. — The Kansas Silent Reading Tests — Monroe's 
Standardized Silent Reading Tests — Tests measuring mastery 
of word meanings and comprehension of sentences and para- 
graphs — The Haggerty Reading Examination — Sigma 3. — > 
Tests measuring rate and comprehension of reading extend- 
ing over a given unit of time — The Starch Silent Reading 
Test — Brown's Silent Reading Test — The Courtis Standard 
Research Test in Silent Reading — Test Number 2. — Gray's 
Standard Silent Reading Tests — Present status of test move- 
ment — References 226 



THE READING PROCESS 



THE READING PROCESS 



CHAPTER I 

LANGUAGE 

Reading an elaborate form of language behavior. — To 
the casual observer reading appears to be a simple and 
commonplace performance. A little reflection, however, 
will convince anyone that this is far from true; and the 
farther the analysis goes the more one becomes conscious 
of the astounding complexity of the process. The printed 
word, so familiar and so natural to the eye of the accom- 
plished reader, is in reality a very intricate contrivance — a 
contrivance representing not only the unitary sound of 
the spoken word, but — through letters and groups of let- 
ters — its component sounds as well. The mechanism of 
the spoken word is even more elusive. In some myste- 
rious way it has come to stand for our ideas and mean- 
ings, and to stand for them so inextricably that were we to 
be deprived of its use we should cease to think and to 
speak — at least until we could find a substitute for it. 
And reading without thinking and speaking would in the 
very nature of the case be quite out of the question. 

To evolve this elaborate form of language activity was 
of course no easy task. Before man could enter upon this 
undertaking it was essential that he acquire some facility 
in thinking and in communicating with others. Before 

l 



4 THE READING PROCESS 

Communication of feeling attitudes through animal 
cries. — But it must not be inferred that the absence of 
genuine language capacity precludes all possibilities of 
communication between animals. The only conclusion 
which we are warranted in drawing is that they have not 
reached the level of mental development on which it is 
possible to label experiences with symbols so that they 
may be rearranged indirectly — thought over — and com- 
municated to others independently of the situations giv- 
ing rise to them. The animal must, therefore, deal with 
his experiences directly in terms of concrete situations 
while man has the capacity to deal with them indirectly 
in terms of free ideas. Although he lacks the capacity 
of free ideational communication, the animal succeeds — 
and often in a striking manner — in communicating his 
feeling attitudes to other animals. The most common 
media of such communication are the so-called animal 
cries. These cries are largely instinctive emotional ex- 
pressions of such attitudes as hunger, fear, anger, surprise, 
and exhilaration. They differ from true language sym- 
bols in that they are direct and natural responses to 
experience — the latter being indirect and symbolic. They 
serve as media of intercommunication because they 
arouse in other animals — especially in the case of those 
related in structure and organization — similar emotional 
attitudes and responses. Although the communication of 
feeling attitudes through instinctive utterances is far re- 
moved from genuine language behavior, the two are not 
unrelated. Human language arises out of instinctive emo- 
tional expression, and it never becomes completely divorced 
from it. The exclamation plays an important part in 



LANGUAGE 5 

human speech and without an ever present emotional 
coloring our words would lose much of their charm. 

Levels of language development. — Human language 
has in the course of its evolution passed through a variety 
of stages. In the first of these — essentially a pre-language 
stage — communication was on a purely emotional level. 
Attitudes rather than ideas were communicated from one 
individual to another. There was on this level no intrin- 
sic difference between human and animal language. Such 
differences as existed were quantitative rather than quali- 
tative. The range of human communication was, how- 
ever, even at this stage much greater than that of the 
animal because early man was endowed with a far more 
complex vocal mechanism and with a much greater vari- 
ety of reflexes and instincts than the highest animals. 

During the second stage of its development language 
was on the gesture level. In order to reach this, man took 
a step which the animal could not take. In other words, 
he began to raise communication to ideational and pur- 
posive levels. Hitherto he had reacted to the various 
situations in which he found himself in a purely spon- 
taneous emotional manner. Now he began to view such 
situations as objective and as subject to adjustment pro- 
vided certain steps were taken. If he was suffering pain, 
for instance, he could communicate his condition to 
another to the end that he might obtain relief. He could 
do this through the use of the gesture or natural sign 
which in the very nature of the case closely resembled 
the situation in which he found himself and the end 
which he desired. 

During the next stage man reached the final language 



4 THE READING PROCESS 

Communication of feeling attitudes through animal 
cries. — But it must not be inferred that the absence of 
genuine language capacity precludes all possibilities of 
communication between animals. The only conclusion 
which we are warranted in drawing is that they have not 
reached the level of mental development on which it is 
possible to label experiences with symbols so that they 
may be rearranged indirectly — thought over — and com- 
municated to others independently of the situations giv- 
ing rise to them. The animal must, therefore, deal with 
his experiences directly in terms of concrete situations 
while man has the capacity to deal with them indirectly 
in terms of free ideas. Although he lacks the capacity 
of free ideational communication, the animal succeeds— 
and often in a striking manner — in communicating his 
feeling attitudes to other animals. The most common 
media of such communication are the so-called animal 
cries. These cries are largely instinctive emotional ex- 
pressions of such attitudes as hunger, fear, anger, surprise, 
and exhilaration. They differ from true language sym- 
bols in that they are direct and natural responses to 
experience — the latter being indirect and symbolic. They 
serve as media of intercommunication because they 
arouse in other animals — especially in the case of those 
related in structure and organization — similar emotional 
attitudes and responses. Although the communication of 
feeling attitudes through instinctive utterances is far re- 
moved from genuine language behavior, the two are not 
unrelated. Human language arises out of instinctive emo- 
tional expression, and it never becomes completely divorced 
from it. The exclamation plays an important part in 



LANGUAGE 5 

human speech and without an ever present emotional 
coloring our words would lose much of their charm. 

Levels of language development. — Human language 
has in the course of its evolution passed through a variety 
of stages. In the first of these — essentially a pre-language 
stage — communication was on a purely emotional level. 
Attitudes rather than ideas were communicated from one 
individual to another. There was on this level no intrin- 
sic difference between human and animal language. Such 
differences as existed were quantitative rather than quali- 
tative. The range of human communication was, how- 
ever, even at this stage much greater than that of the 
animal because early man was endowed with a far more 
complex vocal mechanism and with a much greater vari- 
ety of reflexes and instincts than the highest animals. 

During the second stage of its development language 
was on the gesture level. In order to reach this, man took 
a step which the animal could not take. In other words, 
he began to raise communication to ideational and pur- 
posive levels. Hitherto he had reacted to the various 
situations in which he found himself in a purely spon- 
taneous emotional manner. Now he began to view such 
situations as objective and as subject to adjustment pro- 
vided certain steps were taken. If he was suffering pain, 
for instance, he could communicate his condition to 
another to the end that he might obtain relief. He could 
do this through the use of the gesture or natural sign 
which in the very nature of the case closely resembled 
the situation in which he found himself and the end 
which he desired. 

During the next stage man reached the final language 



6 THE READING PROCESS 

level. On this level the medium of communication — be it 
gesture or sound — no longer resembles the situation or the 
idea. It has become a symbol. The fact that sound 
rather than gesture symbols were selected is not without 
significance. A highly developed gesture language would 
have been quite possible. However, as has been repeat- 
edly pointed out by leading authorities, sound was a far 
more desirable medium of communication than the ges- 
ture. Not only were the vocal reflexes so abundant and 
so highly developed in man that they placed at the service 
of language an almost unlimited number of highly dif- 
ferentiated sound symbols, but they represented marked 
advantages in other respects. They could be used with- 
out interfering with normal activities of various kinds. 
They could be used in the dark and at distances where 
physical gestures were quite useless. Finally, the human 
voice is peculiarly responsive to changing emotional 
states. It could express these as no other medium pos- 
sibly could. 

Language development in the child. — The develop- 
ment of language in the case of the child is in a sense 
much like the racial development of which we have just 
spoken. Long before the dawn of true language, the 
child develops a vocal behavior of considerable extent. 
His earliest sounds and cries are purely reflex and instinc- 
tive emotional reactions to a variety of situations such as 
hunger, anger, pleasure, and pain. As time goes on, many 
of these sounds become more or less dissociated from the 
original situations, but the child — largely for the sake of 
the pleasure which such vocal play affords him — con- 
tinues to use these expressions in the most varied com- 



LANGUAGE 7 

binations. Gradually, too, he comes to add further to his 
stock in trade by imitating those about him. All this 
time he is of course — contrary to popular opinion — on the 
lowest language level, for his utterances are anything but 
true language symbols. 

Presently, however, his behavior begins to change. It 
becomes more objective. He points toward and reaches 
for fairly definite things. For this purpose he uses his 
voice often quite as freely as his arms. He has entered 
upon the gesture stage, and in spite of the fact that his 
media of communication are rather clumsy, he succeeds in 
a remarkable manner in making himself understood. All 
this time his stock of words continues of course to in- 
crease, and, more important still, he comes to learn that 
they serve him far more effectively than cries, gestures, 
and other forms of direct behavior. Hence, words come 
to take the place of these increasingly, and in consequence 
the child finds himself on the highest language level. 
His words — although still comparatively few — have be- 
come true language symbols. Before him lie, however, 
almost unlimited possibilities. All his life he is to add to 
his ever increasing stock of symbols. The meanings, too, 
— for which the symbols stand — are destined to undergo 
change upon change. He has, indeed, entered upon a 
conquest the significance and the vastness of which are 
not readily appreciated. 

A word of caution is in order at this point. We have 
spoken rather freely of rarial and individual levels of 
language development. Such classifications are at best a 
means rather than an end. They are always more or less 
artificial and arbitrary. It must not be inferred, there- 



8 THE READING PROCESS 

fore, that the boundaries between these stages are clearly 
defined or that the stages themselves are mutually ex- 
clusive. Language development was continuous and pro- 
gressive — each level often representing all that had gone 
before. Emotional expression couched in more or less 
conventional forms, as well as gestures of a great variety, 
play an important part in human language. Has it ever 
occurred to the reader how shallow and lifeless human 
speech would be if it were not for the glow which comes 
from a rich emotional coloring and for the emphases and 
picturesqueness which are introduced by the ever varying 
vocal, facial, and bodily gestures of the speaker? And 
what is this emotional coloring but a more or less spon- 
taneous feeling reaction to the meaning and significance 
associated with the symbols of our speech? And the 
gestures, are they not obvious attempts to reenforce the 
communication of ideas in a direct manner? 

The nature of meaning. — It now becomes our task to 
inquire more closely into the nature of the meanings 
which are associated with the symbols of genuine lan- 
guage behavior. The crucial difference between the words 
of a human being and those of the parrot lies — as has 
been repeatedly stressed — in the fact that the former are 
associated with meanings and ideas while the latter are 
not. Accordingly, man is able to use his words as instru- 
ments of thought and communication while the parrot 
can do little more than play with them. In considering 
the nature of meaning, two problems present themselves 
to us: We must inquire how words acquire mean- 
ings, and we must examine the processes which enter 
into the recognition and interpretation of words and 
sentences. 



LANGUAGE 9 

How words acquire meanings. — In endeavoring to 
answer the question raised by the first problem — how- 
words acquire meanings — we cannot do better than quote 
several prominent authorities. Watson — writing from the 
standpoint of behavioristic psychology — takes the posi- 
tion that vocal habits (words) cannot become language 
habits (symbols) until they have become associated with 
bodily habits (reactions to situations), or until they have 
become substitutes for these. In other words, he holds 
that the symbols of a language derive their meaning and 
their significance from the fact that they have in some 
manner become associated with our experiences with 
things and our reactions to real situations. By the time 
the child is prepared to form genuine language habits, it 
has acquired much experience with things and many bod- 
ily habits. "The use of the hands, arms, fingers, and 
organs of locomotion has been more or less perfected" — 
"hundreds of habits of response to objects" having been 
formed. It "has learned to respond by appropriate acts 
to its doll, bottle, small boxes, and to hundreds of other 
objects." "These habits of response to objects," Watson 
holds, "are essential to the formation of language habits." 
He aptly illustrates the way in which these reactions 
become associated with the vocal habits (words) of the 
child: 

The stimulus (object) to which the child often responds, a 
box, for example, by movements such as opening and closing 
and putting objects into it, may serve to illustrate our argu- 
ment. The nurse, observing that the child reacts with his hands, 
feet, etc., to the box, begins to say "box" when the child is 
handed the box, "open box' 7 when the child opens it, "close 
box" when he closes it, and "put doll in box" when that act is 
executed. This is repeated over and over again. In the process 



10 THE READING PROCESS 

of time it comes about that without any other stimulus than 
that of the box which originally called out only the bodily 
habits, he begins to say "box" when he sees it, "open box" when 
he opens it, etc. The visible box now becomes a stimulus 
capable of releasing either the bodily habits or the word habit; 
that is, development has brought about two things: (1) a series 
of functional connections among arcs which run from visual 
receptor to muscles of throat, and (2) a series of already earlier 
connected arcs which run from the same receptor to the bodily 
muscles. When the box is presented now, which set of arcs will 
function? Evidently either (1) or (2) or both simultaneously. It 
is at this time that the influence of the environment upon shaping 
language habits comes again clearly to the front. The object 
meets the child's vision. He runs to it and tries to reach it 
and says "box." The box happens to have been put beyond his 
reach. The nurse, seeing the child's efforts to reach it and 
hearing the word "box," hands it to the child. This situation 
being repeated day in and day out, not only with this object but 
with hundreds of others, brings it about that the arcs running 
from receptors to throat muscles offer the least resistance so far 
as concerns the neural impulses aroused by the box. Frnally, the 
word is uttered without the movement of going to the box being 
executed. There has been a substitution (mechanical process) of 
a language habit for a bodily habit. One other step and the 
process is complete. We found in our studies on the maze that 
every cul-de-sac represented what we might call a simple unit 
habit. These simple habits when perfected rise serially. When 
learning is complete, we can put the animal down anywhere in 
the maze, and after a few trial movements the remaining part of 
the journey is executed without a break. Something similar 
of course occurs in all complete systems of bodily habit and in 
language habits as well. Habits are formed of going to the box 
when the arms are full of toys. The child has been taught to 
deposit them there. When his arms are laden with toys and no 
box is there, the word habit arises and he calls "box"; it is 
handed to him and he opens it and deposits the toys therein. This 
roughly marks what we would call the genesis of true language 
habit. 1 

1 Watson, J. B.: Behavior, pp. 329-330. 



LANGUAGE 11 

Judd — who writes from the standpoint of functional 
psychology — takes a very similar position. He holds that 
words gain their significance or meaning through "direct 
association with bodily reactions" — reactions or responses 
called forth by the varied stimuli of the environment of 
the individual. The reactions thus associated with words 
are, however, in his estimation, not infrequently greatly 
reduced forms of the original. He gives the following 
illustration of the manner in which these associations 
take place : 

When I seize an object I get at first an impression of that 
thing; if the impression is disagreeable, I react by pushing it 
away. The end of the whole process is the pushing away. Later 
as I become acquainted with the thing, I push it away without 
examining it in detail; that is, without a complete impression 
of it. Finally the merest suggestion that the thing is there will 
arouse the reaction. The reaction can now be detached from the 
thing and can be attached to some substitute for the thing. Thus 
the word danger sounded in my ear causes me to jump. The 
word danger is a substitute for an impression or an idea of a 
dangerous thing. The words rough and smooth arouse in me 
contrasting experiences without any necessity of first handling 
some rough or smooth thing. The words have in all these cases 
taken meanings to themselves; that is, they have taken on 
connection with interpreting forms of behavior. 

It is not alone in the sphere of emotional interpretation that 
words become independent of the experiences from which they 
first derived their meaning. Take for purposes of illustration 
such words as up and down. These words were at first inter- 
preted to us in childhood by someone who pointed upward or 
looked upward when he used the word up. Sometimes the word 
was associated with the observation of a flight of stairs or a 
ladder. Ultimately all these experiences were condensed into 
a few faint tendencies to roll the eyes upward or downward, 
and the adult thus appreciates in an easy way, through a mere 
tendency to move, the meaning which the child had to learn 



12 THE READING PROCESS 

through many experiences and much effort. Furthermore, the 
rolling upward of the eyes has, in the course of mental develop- 
ment, attached itself not only to tall things and high things but 
also to such matters as abstract values, as when we say that prices 
have gone up. Again, we say that a man's career is downward. 
Words thus come to have a value of their own without going 
back to things for their interpretation. 1 

These illustrations of the manner in which words come 
to assume significance make it clear that word meanings 
are intimately connected with our behavior. Indeed, they 
grow directly out of it. A word is obviously a meaning- 
less sound until it comes to stand for or to represent some 
habitual reaction or response to our environment. Once 
words have acquired this representative power, however, 
they become instruments of inestimable value. They 
enable us to consider our experiences in an indirect and 
economical manner whenever and wherever we desire. 
Accordingly, we come to live in a world of words to a 
marked extent. We conceive our experiences and our 
behavior in terms of words. We analyze, rearrange, and 
elaborate them in terms of words. And, what is more, we 
anticipate through words the behavior and the experi- 
ences which are to come — in short, we think before we act 
and we plan before we execute. 

The fact that word meanings grow out of the experi- 
ences of the individual — through association with his 
reactions and responses — is of tremendous significance for 
those intrusted with the education of children — and 
adults, too, for that matter. We have long been too 
much concerned with the teaching of words. The all 
important experience background has been too largely 

x Judd, Chas. H.: Psychology of High School Subjects, pp. 154-155. 



LANGUAGE 13 

ignored or neglected. In consequence there has been — 
and still is — altogether too much parrotlike repetition in 
our educational institutions. In some cases this unfor- 
tunate condition may be readily corrected by providing 
for proper associations since the learner already possesses 
the requisite experiences. In other cases the experiences 
may be easily supplied. There are, however, many cases 
— especially in our elementary and high schools — in 
which the experiences cannot possibly be supplied because 
of the immaturity of the pupils. In other words, we are 
in such cases dealing with a content which is beyond the 
actual and — for the time being — beyond the possible ex- 
perience background of the pupils. For illustrations we 
need not go beyond the content of some of our school 
readers and the classics studied in the English classes of 
many of our high schools. 

Processes entering into the recognition and interpre- 
tation of words and sentences. — We have discussed at 
some length the manner in which words acquire mean- 
ings. As we progressed, it became increasingly evident 
that meanings arise out of our experiences — that they 
consist essentially of our habitual reactions and responses 
to real situations. We shall now consider the problem of 
the nature of meaning from a slightly different angle. 
The question before us is : What do we experience when 
we get the meanings of words and sentences? 

It has been too often naively assumed that we experi- 
ence on such occasions chiefly mental images — a sort of 
pictorial representation of the things and events read or 
talked about. The reader may have little difficulty in 
recalling how persistently some of his teachers stressed 



14 THE READING PROCESS 

the necessity of imaging clearly whatever was being read. 
He may also recall discovering presently that he could 
read with greater speed and satisfaction when forgetting 
all about images and pictures. And his discovery was 
quite in keeping with the facts in the case. Any serious 
attempt to image the meanings of the words which are 
being read or spoken is not only an extremely slow and 
cumbersome process, but it is often quite impossible — 
particularly in the case of the more abstract words. For 
many of these words there could be — in the very nature 
of the case — little, if any, imagery in the sense in which 
structural and functional psychologists use the term. A 
critical examination of what actually happens when we 
recognize and interpret words and sentences shows that 
the phenomena — usually designated as mental imagery — 
are a later incident rather than the essence of meaning. 
Only when the meaning is allowed to unfold itself beyond 
the normal stage are these likely to appear to any extent. 
A rapid and efficient reader experiences little, if any, 
imagery as he goes along. 

Experimental investigations show that word presenta- 
tion is likely to be followed by a recognition of the word 
form as familiar and by a feeling of confidence on the 
part of the individual that he knows what the word 
means and that he could use it if necessary. If the pre- 
sentation is visual, it is almost invariably followed by 
some degree of mental pronunciation. The extent of this 
inner pronunciation varies of course greatly with indi- 
viduals. On the one extreme it is so prominent that it 
results in very obvious lip movement and on the other it 
is so much reduced as to be barely vestigial. It is safe to 



LANGUAGE 15 

say, however, that this inner pronunciation plays an 
important part in the case of most readers. The reader 
may readily convince himself of its importance by trying 
to exclude it — through the repetition of a nonsense syl- 
lable — while reading several sentences or paragraphs. 
Such reading is extremely difficult for the average indi- 
vidual. 

Experimental investigations show, further, that word 
recognition is usually accompanied or followed by strong 
tendencies toward structural associations. Huey, who ex- 
perimented with a considerable number of subjects, found 
that the mental pronunciation of the word was apt to be 
followed by "a mental pronunciation of some phrase or 
other word that had been associatively connected, as 
when by gave sweet by and by, vertical gave vertical 
writing, etc." Quite frequently "there would be but a 
dim suggestion of some familiar line of poetry, leaving 
the reader with a vague and tantalizing feeling of some- 
thing w 7 hich he could not get." Connective and relational 
"words gave evidence of setting the reader's thoughts in 
some characteristic direction of expectancy, and doubtless 
the prepositions, especially, always had some very general 
influence in determining how the whole psycho-physical 
organism should face a coming related object." When 
words and phrases were exposed consecutively in context, 
"the readers took a more active attitude, the associations 
were less varied but more numerous, and there were other 
very characteristic differences." 

A reader who had looked blankly at the word A when exposed 
singly, and had gotten no associations, had a rich content of 
associations when A appeared as the first word of a new paragraph. 



16 THE READING PROCESS 

Besides, his feelings of expectancy, curiosity, strain, the forward 
push that was marked in all readers of the context exposures, were 
even more prominent than the definite associations. The mere 
statement that the word to be exposed is part of a sense passage 
limits the trend of the association at the start. The limitation 
extends farther when the reader has caught the general topic dis- 
cussed in the passage, and still farther when the exposed word is 
presented upon a verbal and ideational background formed by the 
complete preceding context. In the spider story, for example, after 
the mention of web-weaving, the word top no longer suggested 
top of hill, flagstaff, spinning tops, etc., as when it was exposed 
in isolation, but now suggested the top of a post or gateway, with 
the spider situation in mind. 

The newly exposed word was usually mentally pronounced as 
before, and was fitted into the preceding, as one reader very 
often put it, the new word seeming to contribute toward a notion 
of sentence unity to which each additional element added a 
needed part. Immediately following this there was usually a 
filling out of the sentence or phrase so as to make sense with 
what came before, and when this did not actually occur, there 
was usually the forward push, forward tendency, tendency to fill 
out, as it has been variously described by the readers. All em- 
phasized the strength and comparative constancy of this feeling, 
and mentioned it as perhaps the most striking thing observed in 
the experiments. 1 

The processes thus far enumerated — the recognition of 
word form as familiar, the feeling of confidence on the 
part of the individual that he knows what the word means 
and that he could use it if necessary, the inner pro- 
nunciation, and the tendency on the part of the word 
to enter into structural relationships with other words — 
doubtless play an important part in word recognition and 
interpretation. But there are other and more funda- 
mental processes. Our discussion of the manner in which 
words acquire meanings brought us face to face with the 

1 Huey, E. B.: Psychology and Pedagogy oj Reading, pp. 153-156. 



LANGUAGE 17 

fact that meanings come only as words become asso- 
ciated with or take the place of certain forms of our 
behavior. It is to be expected, therefore, that word 
recognition and interpretation should involve tendencies 
to recall and — if sufficient time be allowed — to rein- 
state these forms of our behavior. In other words, there 
is a tendency to react in the presence of the word as we 
would react in the presence of the real situation. It is 
here — in these tendencies to react in an appropriate man- 
ner — that we find the fundamental processes entering 
into the recognition and interpretation of words. Judd 
says: 

When I utter the word dog or hear the sound whicn comes 
from uttering that word, the partial or verbal reaction expands 
instantly into the general bodily attitude appropriate to the 
experience of seeing a dog. If I am afraid of dogs, the essential 
part of the experience will be a feeling of violent contraction 
of my internal muscles and a desire to run. If I am fond 
of dogs, I shall have a reaching out of all my muscles and a 
feeling of satisfaction. 1 

Under ordinary conditions these reactions do not, of 
course, assume the proportions indicated above. If they 
did, word interpretation would be a rather strenuous 
and dramatic process. As a matter of fact, the mere 
tendency to react in an appropriate manner usually 
suffices for word interpretation. A certain amount of 
feeling reaction is doubtless always present. In some 
cases this may be so pronounced as to overshadow all 
other concomitants; in other cases motor and logical 
tendencies predominate. Much depends of course upon 

a Judd, Chas. H.: Psychology oj High School Subjects, p. 147. 



18 THE READING PROCESS 

conditions — both objective and subjective. A traveler in 
a snake-infested region would doubtless react more freely 
to the word rattlesnake than a person far removed from 
the danger zone. Similarly, the word fire would elicit a 
very different response in a crowded theatre than in an 
open street. The influence of subjective states upon 
reactions and reaction time is well known. Other things 
being equal, individuals who have at some time or other 
had unpleasant experiences with rattlesnakes and with 
fire will react with greater feeling to these terms than 
others. The fact remains, however, that for most of our 
ordinary word interpretations— spoken or written — the 
reactions are little more than tendencies to action. 
And not infrequently these are so highly generalized 
as to appear trivial and unrelated to the situation in 
question. 

It remains to be pointed out finally that the unit of 
meaning is usually larger than the word. It is the more 
comprehensive thought group — most often the sentence. 
We are rarely concerned with words alone in our speech. 
When we are, the words represent in reality sentences or 
larger thought units. Word meanings are of course gen- 
uinely real ; only in themselves they are bundles of possi- 
bilities rather than complete thought units. They often 
vary in a striking manner in the midst of an ever chang- 
ing context. The value of words, as Judd has well 
put it, "lies in the fact that they carry experience for- 
ward, furnishing only so much content as is necessary to 
support thought." 

Huey's findings point in the same direction. He 
concludes: 



LANGUAGE 19 

Of specific meanings beyond this general feeling of making 
sense, everything in my own experiments indicates that they are 
usually total meanings belonging to sentences or to unitary 
parts of sentences, but felt differently as this or that particular 
word is being dealt with; or we can say that the particular word's 
meaning is felt in a perspective of the total meaning. A rela- 
tion can hardly be felt apart from the terms or objects related, 
a particular manner or intensity of action or being can hardly be 
suggested by an adverb apart from the thought of the action 
or being itself. And likewise a substantive that is thought of 
naturally has, in this thought, something of the substantive's 
relationships. In short, it is total situations and performances 
that we think of and read of, and these are often complex, always 
with various aspects and various relationships of parts. No 
single word names or describes the whole. When a single word 
is presented, therefore, it suggests but a part or an aspect 
of this total meaning and is felt as inadequate and artificial 
unless given in its sentence context. With meanings, as with 
vocal utterance, the sentence meaning is the natural unit, and 
smaller divisions considered apart from this are felt as disjecta 
membra. 1 

Social origin and function of language. — While lan- 
guage activity is at base instinctive, its development is 
dependent upon social stimulation. An individual grow- 
ing up entirely apart from other human beings would 
develop little beyond certain crude forms of emotional 
expression. Several individuals growing up together 
would of course — as did the race — develop effective 
modes of intercommunication, but the contribution of 
any one generation would be trifling since language sys- 
tems are the product of time. Once language is developed, 
it becomes conventional and is acquired through imita- 
tion. Under these circumstances instinctive tendencies 
toward expression, a social environment furnishing stimu- 

*Huey, E. B.: Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, pp. 166-167. 



20 THE READING PROCESS 

lation, and the capacity to imitate constitute the essential 
conditions for language development. The nature and 
the extent of the actual development depend upon the 
conventions^ — the language — of the social group in ques- 
tion. Whether an individual is to acquire the simple 
language of a primitive tribe or the highly developed lan- 
guage of a civilized people, or whether he is to learn to 
speak English, French or Spanish, or whether he is to 
acquire a conventional language at all is entirely deter- 
mined by his environment. 

Once language was developed it became an instrument 
of tremendous significance for the race. In fact without 
it, social evolution — as we know it — would have been 
quite out of the question. Language is the one bond 
which has held men together from the earliest times — ■ 
enabling them to effect tribal and national organizations, 
to develop common traditions and ideals, and to attain 
remarkable unity and homogeneity in spite of vastly 
divergent tendencies and interests. With the advent of 
writing, the power and influence of language were greatly 
enhanced. Spoken language has severe limitations. As 
an instrument of communication it is too transient and 
too severely restricted by space and time. Large bodies 
of people and people widely separated can be reached 
far more effectively through written language. Indeed, a 
truly progressive civilization would have been quite im- 
possible without some form of graphic language. Only 
through this medium is it possible to accumulate knowl- 
edge and to transmit it effectively from one generation to 
another. The invention of writing — and printing more 
recently — more than any other factor has made it pos- 



LANGUAGE 21 

sible for each successive generation to begin where the 
preceding left off. 

SELECTED KEFEKENCES 

1. Huey, E. B. — Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1908. 

2. Judd, Chas. H. — Psychology; Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1907, and 

Ginn and Company, 1917. 
Psychology of High School Subjects; Ginn and Com- 
pany, 1915. 

3. Stout, G. F. — Analytic Psychology, I and II; The Macmillan 

Company, 1909. 

4. Watson, J. B. — Behavior; Henry Holt and Company, 1914. 

5. Wundt, Wilhelm M. — Voelkerpsychologie, I, Die Sprache; W. 

Englemann (Leipzig), 1900. 



CHAPTER II 

THE EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE — PICTURE WRITING 
AND TRANSITION STAGES 

In the last chapter we discussed at some length the 
origin and nature of language. As we progressed, it be- 
came increasingly evident that the two outstanding lan- 
guage factors are symbols and meanings. To the latter 
we devoted considerable attention; the former it now 
becomes our task to scrutinize more closely. Since we 
are concerned with language primarily from the stand- 
point of reading, our interest will of necessity center 
about the graphic rather than the spoken symbol. With 
all this, it must not be forgotten that the relationship 
between the two is a very intimate one — especially dur- 
ing the later stages of language development. 

Stages in the evolution of graphic language symbols. 
— The story of the evolution of written language is a long 
and intricate one. The graphic representation of lan- 
guage^ — in all its marvelous complexity and variety — was 
not evolved overnight. It does not commemorate the 
inventive genius of any one individual, nor does it mark 
the peculiar contribution of a particular people or a given 
epoch. It is rather the outcome of a long process of 
evolution — a process beginning in the dim past and con- 
tinuing to the very present — contributions having been 
made all along the line by a great variety of peoples and 

22 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 23 

agencies. That the contributions thus made should in 
many cases have entered upon a struggle for existence 
and that much should have been eliminated as time went 
on, is in accordance with expectation. In a sense, there- 
fore, the graphic symbols of to-day are the survivals 
which for one reason or another have stood the test of 
time. That only the best forms — from the standpoint of 
linguistic perfection and efficiency — have survived, we 
shall not contend. Yet we must admit that the trend of 
the development on the whole has been in the right direc- 
tion. This is all the more striking since the process has 
of necessity been largely an unconscious one. Conscious 
evolution in language — as in all other human institutions 
— comes at a comparatively late stage. It is, therefore, 
only in relatively recent times that man has begun to turn 
the searchlight upon his own linguistic behavior and to 
propose its scientific direction. Indeed, — as will appear 
from subsequent discussions — we have scarcely reached 
that point yet. Language occupies an intimate and pre- 
ponderant place in human behavior and so is not sub- 
jected readily to thoroughgoing changes — such as the 
adoption of a phonetic or even a partially simplified sys- 
tem of spelling. That such steps are not only desirable 
but ultimately probably quite inevitable, we shall point 
out later. Meanwhile, it will be our chief concern to trace 
briefly the evolution of graphic language from its simplest 
beginnings to its present varied and complex status. In 
so doing, we shall find it convenient to center our dis- 
cussion about the following natural developmental stages : 
I. The picture writing stage, in which the signs 
represent directly objects and ideas or objective and idea- 



24 THE READING PROCESS 

tional situations. In connection with this the following 
substages may be distinguished : 

1. The mnemonic , in which the sign is primarily a 
reminder; 

2. The pictographic, in which the sign represents 
directly an object or an objective situation; 

3. The ideographic, in which the sign represents 
directly an idea or an ideational situation. 

II. A transition stage, in which the sign refers 
not only to the object or idea which it represents but to 
its name as well. 

III. The phonetic stage, in which the sign refers 
to sounds or spoken symbols irrespective of their mean- 
ings. This resolves itself into the following substages : 

1. The verbal, in which the sign represents a whole 
word; 

2. The syllabic, in which the sign represents a syllable; 

3. The alphabetic, in which the sign represents an ele- 
mentary sound. 

We shall discuss the first two of these — the picture 
writing and transition stages — in this chapter; the third 
— the phonetic stage — together with some account of the 
evolution of the printed page, we shall elaborate in the 
next. 

I. The picture writing stage. — In this stage — as 
indicated above — the signs refer directly to objects and 
ideas or to more complex objective and ideational situa- 
tions. The names of the things referred to do not enter 
into the situation directly. This does not mean of course 
that names as such are absent. Thinking, as pointed out 
elsewhere, always goes on in terms of symbols of some 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 25 

kind — usually in terms of words, though gestures appear 
to play an important part in the case of primitive man. 
Accordingly, in spite of the fact that signs suggest at this 
stage objects and ideas rather than names, the thought 
processes which they arouse in the reader must go on in 
terms of symbols — the spoken word and the gesture. 
The situation, then, is something like this : The sign, be 
it picture or graph, portrays or suggests to the reader 
objective or ideational situations varying in complexity — 
a particular animal such as a buffalo, a concrete experi- 
ence connected with the hunt or chase, an abstract idea 
such as virtue, or complex situations involving both the 
concrete and the abstract; the reader reacts to these much 
as we do to a cartoon, a pictorial, or an illustration ; that 
is, he thinks (talks) the situation over in terms of lan- 
guage symbols of his own choosing — always within the 
limits of the situation of course — rather than in terms of 
words directly suggested by the signs as in the case of 
modern reading. 

This leads to the important observation that spoken 
and written language, although divorced during the early 
stages, are, nevertheless, intimately related — both being 
objective expressions of a common thought background. 
This will become increasingly obvious as we trace picture 
writing through its several levels of development. 

1. The mnemonic. — There is ample evidence that man 
began his career as a writer and reader by devising 
mnemonics — objective or graphic signs serving as mem- 
ory aids or reminders. In all parts of the globe and 
among widely varying peoples there are found indica- 
tions of such. Indeed, in some instances relatively primi- 



26 



THE READING PROCESS 



tive forms of reminders have persisted among our own 
race to this very day. That writing and reading should 
have begun thus is not surprising when one considers 
their function in the highly complex life of to-day. Even 
now — aside from communication at a distance — we are 




Fig. 1. 

chiefly interested in recording thought in order that it 
may be made permanently accessible to ourselves and to 
others. Mnemonics naturally varied widely — all the way 
from crude drawing^ to elaborate objective forms such as 
the quipu, the notched stick, and the wampum belt, 
which are commonly cited as the best examples. 

The quipu (Fig. 1) was without question the most 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 27 

interesting and the most elaborate of these mnemonic 
devices. It was in common use among many peoples, 
including the Peruvians, the North American Indians, the 
Hawaiians, the Chinese, and the Egyptians. Clodd gives 
the following interesting description of the Peruvian 
quipu : 

It consists of a main cord, to which are fastened at given dis- 
tances thinner cords of different colors, each cord being knotted in 
divers ways for special purposes, and each color having its own 
significance. Eed strands stood for soldiers, yellow for gold, 
white for silver, green for corn, and so forth, while a single 
knot meant ten, two single knots meant twenty, double knots one 
hundred, and two double knots two hundred. Such simple devices 
served manifold purposes. Besides their convenience in reckoning, 
they were used for keeping the annals for the empire of the Incas ; 
for transmitting orders to outlying provinces; for registering de- 
tails of the army ; and even for preserving records of the dead with 
whom the quipu was buried, as in old Egypt the biography or titles 
of the deceased were set forth in hieroglyph and deposited in the 
tomb. 1 

The notched stick also had a wide geographical distri- 
bution and appears to have served much the same pur- 
poses. It was made of wood, and the facts to be recorded 
were inscribed upon its surface in the form of notches. 
As late as "a half century ago/' Hoffman states, "it was 
customary in Scotland for the baker's lad to bring the 
nick-sticks with his bread, a notch being made for each 
loaf he left. While the notches on his stick corresponded 
with those on the one left with the family, both parties 
were satisfied that the account was correctly kept." 2 
The wampum belt was prevalent among the North Amer- 

1 Clodd, Edmond: The Story of the Alphabet, p. 37. 
3 Hoffman, W. J.: Beginnings of Writing, p. 141. 



28 THE READING PROCESS 

ican Indians— especially the Iroquois. It was made of 
"beads or perforated shells arranged in various more or 
less conventionalized patterns on bark filaments, hemp, 
or deerskin strips or sinews." The patterns were "pic- 
torial symbols recording events in the history of the tribe 
or treaties between tribes." They were also "used to 
denote land boundaries or personal property." x 

2. The pictograph. — But the growing needs of primi- 
tive man were too complex and too urgent to permit him 
to tarry long on the mnemonic level. We are, therefore, 
not surprised to find that he began to record his thoughts 
and his achievements in rude pictures long before the 
possibilities of the simple mnemonic devices had been 
fully exhausted. As time went on, these pictures assumed 
an elaborateness little dreamed of. They were inscribed 
upon almost every conceivable substance from the human 
body to the fagades of massive rocks and cliffs — the most 
common being the natural and artificial objects of every- 
day environment such as pebbles, stones, bones, skins, 
wood, copper, dwellings, monuments, pottery, textiles, 
tools, and fetishes. These pictures dealt with every phase 
of life — and the life of early man was not so devoid of 
content as civilized man is sometimes disposed to infer. 
He had his political and social organizations, his economic 
struggles, his problems of war and peace, his religious 
practices, his customs, his traditions, and his achieve- 
ments. In all of these he was tremendously interested, 
and consequently the pictograph is concerned with all of 
them. 

In its pure form the pictograph depicts and portrays 

^lodd, Edmond: The Story of the Alphabet, p. 42, 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 29 

objects and objective situations as they are, although of 
necessity in an abbreviated and schematic manner — a 
buffalo being portrayed by a picture representing the 
characteristic features of that animal, and a hunting ex- 
pedition by a series of pictures depicting the essentials of 
such a situation. Such direct pictorial representation is 
a comparatively simple matter as long as it concerns 
concrete objects and very elementary situations of every- 
day environment, but the moment that the picture writer 
comes face to face with abstract ideas and with the neces- 
sity of representing reasonably complex situations he gets 
into serious difficulty for these cannot be depicted so 
directly. A variety of devices — more or less obscure and 
indirect — at once becomes a necessity. Beyond the repre- 
sentation of simple objects it is, therefore, not so easy to 
find pure pictographs. Most pictographic representa- 
tions involve much that is ideographic as well. 

Mallery — who made an intensive study of the picture 
writing of the American Indian — distinguishes the follow- 
ing classes of pictographs: 1 (1) chronological, including 
pictures purposing to deal with ordinary time units — 
days, weeks, months, years, epochs — each unit being pic- 
torially represented by its most striking event and the 
pictures for the several time units being arranged in con- 
secutive order, usually on skins; (2) notices, concerning 
visits, departures, directions taken in going from place to 
place, conditions such as starvation or disease, and im- 
pending danger; (3) communications, such as declara- 
tions of war, professions of peace and friendship, chal- 

1 Mallery, G.: Picture Writing of the American Indian. Tenth 
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 



30 THE READING PROCESS 

lenges, social and religious missives, and claims or de- 
mands; (4) totems, titles, and names, especially pictorial 
tribal and class designations, tattoo, insignia or tokens of 
authority, signs of individual achievement, property 
marks, and personal names; (5) religious, embracing 
symbols of the supernatural, myths, mystic animals, 
shamanism, charms, ceremonies, mortuary practices, 
death notices, and grave posts; (6) customs, relating to 
cult societies, daily life and habits, and games; (7) his- 
torical, referring to expeditions, battles, migrations, and 
sociological events; and (8) biographical, representing 
continuous records of events in life, as well as particular 
events or exploits. 

An excellent example of the use of the pictograph to 
depict a continuous series of events representing the cus- 
toms and practices of a people is given by Mallery — the 
illustration being a five page extract from a post-Colum- 
bian manuscript in the Mendoza collection, now in the 
Bodleian Library, published by Kingsborough. The first 
page "exhibits the customs of the Mexican at the birth of 
a male or female infant; the right and ceremony of nam- 
ing the children and of afterwards dedicating them and 
offering them at their temples or to the military profes- 
sion." The second page illustrates the bringing up of 
boys and girls from the ages of three to six. The third 
(Plate I) represents the training of children from seven to 
ten. The fourth shows the education of boys and girls 
from eleven to fourteen, and the fifth the adoption of an 
occupation and the laws and usages followed in marriage. 

3. The ideograph. — As indicated repeatedly, the picto- 
graph and the ideograph almost invariably go together 



a O 

oooooo 





h 

oooo 
oooo 





771 



9 

OOOO 

ooooo 





^ QpOOO 

x ooooo 




cc 



aa> 




Plate I. 
31 



32 THE READING PROCESS 

wherever picture writing is found — the former prevailing 
during the earlier and the latter during the later stages. 
The moment that primitive man goes beyond the mere 
portrayal of objects — the moment that he attempts to de- 
pict situations — he encounters the more or less abstract 
which cannot be readily pictured in a direct manner. Ac- 
cordingly, if the growth of his invention is not to be 
arrested, he must devise indirect means of representa- 
tion ; that is, where he cannot depict and portray, he must 
suggest and imply. The moment he does this, he resorts 
to ideography — however simple this may be in its begin- 
nings. For this reason few of the illustrations commonly 
cited as pictographs are pictographs pure and simple. 
Most of them represent much that is ideographic as well. 
There are signs of direction, of time, of condition, of 
action, of emotions, of attitudes, of relationships, and of 
a host of other more or less abstract situations and con- 
cepts. All of these primitive man managed to express 
rather well — although not infrequently quite awkwardly 
— even during the early stages represented by the North 
American Indian. 

These Indian tribes, in contrast with certain other 
primitive peoples who had advanced farther in ideog- 
raphy, showed, as Mallery points out, a marked tendency 
to use tangible and visible forms for the expression of the 
essentially abstract. In part this is to be accounted for 
by the fact that they had developed great facility in com- 
municating by means of gesture or sign language; indeed, 
so well does communication by means of gesture or sign 
language appear to have been developed that the aborig- 
inal North American had practically a universal Ian- 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 33 

guage. It is only natural that such gestures should be 
represented pictorially — often, to be sure, by force of 
necessity in seriously abbreviated and circumscribed 
forms. Aside from the gesture, the Indian employed a 
variety of devices to suggest the more or less abstract. 
Thus old age was suggested through wrinkles and project- 
ing lips; youth by diminutive size; largeness through 
unusual size; the idea of bad through an abnormality; 
disease by common characteristics of the disease; swift- 
ness by a figure representing rapidity of motion; 
slowness by a figure moving slowly; peace and friendship 
by clasped hands; war by two arrows shot in opposite 
directions; abundance by meat stored in a pit; starvation 
by a figure with bare ribs; many by repetitions; much by 
a heap; possession by objects held in front; seeing by a 
figure with a line extending from the eyes; speech by a 
line or commalike form in front of the mouth; hearing 
by lines extending from the ears ; sickness in general by a 
figure leaning against a post; the mystic or sacred by 
a figure with waving lines above the head; kinship 
through a figure joined by a base line; life and death by a 
white circle and a black disk respectively; morning, noon, 
and evening by an upward curve with short lines attached 
at right angles to indicate the position of tne sun; ana so 
ad infinitum. 

Conventionalization and symbolization on the 
ideographic level. — The development of picture writing 
wherever found is marked by two characteristic ten- 
dencies — tendencies toward conventionalization and sym- 
bolization. In accordance with the former, objects and 
ideas — at first represented and depicted now in one way 



34 THE READING PROCESS 

and now in another — come gradually to be regularly rep- 
resented by the same simplified and stereotyped forms. 
Among the Northern Indian tribes of North America this 
tendency was clearly in evidence though by no means 
fully developed. Among the Mexican and Peruvian 
Indians its development was marked — common objects 
and ideas being represented without exception by the 
same stereotyped signs. Conventionalization, in so far 
as it involves the simplification of the figure or sign, is 
really a step in the direction of symbolization since the 
direct relationship between the sign and the thing signi- 
fied is lessened. Symbolization is usually accomplished 
by the employment of such devices as the substitution of 
a part of the object or idea for the whole, and by repre- 
senting one object or idea by another. 

By means of the former — the substitution of a part for 
the wholes — animals may be represented by footprints, 
parts of the body, or other special characteristics. Thus 
the jaguar is often indicated by its spotted skin; the 
wild turkey by the imprint of its foot; the deer, elk, 
moose, and buffalo by hoofprints of various sizes or by the 
head or horns; a bear by the figure of its paws; and a 
horse by its hoof. In the same manner locomotion came 
to be indicated by the outline of the sole of the foot, or 
the lower part of the legs in the attitude of walking; 
running by legs in the act of running; negation by the 
simplified form of the outstretched arms; friendship by 
clasped hands; sorrow by tears falling from the eyes; 
traveling on foot and by water by footprints and pad- 
dles; the lassoing of horses by hoofprints and a slight 
indication of a lariat; night by a circle with a star in the 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 35 

middle; eating by a piece of maize cake protruding from 
the mouth ; drinking by the symbol for water between the 
lips. 

By means of the latter — the representation of one 
object or idea by another — a tomahawk came to signify 
war; a pipe, peace; a crescent, a month; two arrows shot 
in opposite directions, a battle; the direction of the 
arrow's point, the direction taken by the enemy; trees 
with faint signs of buds, spring; a bee, industry; a roll of 
papyrus, knowledge; an ostrich feather, justice; a palm 
branch, probably because of the annual cutting of the 
lower leaves, a year; a jackal, because of its watchfulness, 
a priest; a vulture, because it was supposed to nourish 
its young with its own blood, a mother. 

II. The transition stage. — The transition from 
picture writing to phonetic writing represents, as all pre- 
vious linguistic advances, a long period of growth and 
development. The later stages of picture writing are not 
wanting in indications of impending changes. There is 
in evidence, for instance, a tendency to add slight deter- 
minatives to pictures and signs in order that they may 
be used to designate a greater variety of objects or ideas — 
a practice which would in the very nature of the case 
tend to lessen the immediate bond between the sign and 
the thing signified. In the case of such languages as the 
Egyptian, the Chinese, the Mayan, and the Mexican, 
these determinatives were commonplace, but they were in 
evidence also among the less developed languages of the 
Northern Indian tribes — particularly the O jib was. Espe- 
cially, as Hoffman indicates, did they use such marks or 
determinatives to indicate that a sign referred to the 



36 THE READING PROCESS 

mystic or supernatural. For instance, "when animal 
forms" were "intended to denote totems or clans, the 
simple outline of the animal" was "portrayed, but when 
a manido or spirit form of such animal" was "intended, a 
line or bar" was "drawn across the thorax, or short lines 
might be attached to the back extending from the head 
down to the extremity of the tail" or both. This tendency 
was "sufficiently persistent and conspicuous to indicate 
that the jib was were on the verge of a transition from 
pure ideography to a modified form of ikonomatic (pho- 
netic-picture) writing." * Furthermore, conventionali- 
zation and symbolization resulted, on the one hand, in a 
reduction and even an obliteration of the resemblance 
between the signs and the things signified and, on the 
other, in the adoption of stereotyped forms — the same 
object or idea being again and again represented by the 
same simplified sign or symbol. It is only natural that 
such a process should in time lead to a closer relationship 
between spoken and written language. And this is ex- 
actly what happened. The sign came presently to sug- 
gest the name as well as the object or idea. Tozzer gives 
some very interesting illustrations from the Nahua manu- 
scripts — especially of place names. In every instance the 
syllables of the names thus given are "expressed directly 
by pictures of objects or acts, by position, or by color" 
and in each case the meaning of the picture and the sound 
or name are conveyed together : 2 

1 Hoffman, J. W.: Beginnings of Writing, pp. 76-77. 

2 Tozzer, A. M.: Value of Ancient Mexican Manuscripts in the 
Study of the General Development of Writing; Proceedings of the 
American Antiquarian Society, 1911, pp. 89-93. 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 

Cal-tepec (Fig. 2), the house on the mountain: 

Cat from colli, house; 

Tepee from tepetl, mountain. 
A-tepec (Fig. 3), the water on the mountain: 

A from atl, water; 

Tepee from tepetl, mountain. 



37 




Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



Coa-tepec (Fig. 4), the mountain of the serpent 
Coa from coatl, serpent; 
Tepee from tepetl, mountain. 




Fig 5. 



Toli-man (Fig. 5), the place where the rushes are cut: 
Toll from tollin, rushes; 

Ma, the root of the vefb meaning "to take something 
by the hand." 

However, as repeatedly indicated in our discussion, 
many things cannot be thus directly and objectively rep- 
resented. In consequence man is forced to resort to 
various indirect devices. At this stage of writing he 



38 THE READING PROCESS 

resorted to what is commonly called rebus representation. 
This constitutes the distinguishing mark of the transition 
stage. Rebus writing makes use of the fact that there 
are in most spoken languages numerous homophones — 
words similar in sound but different in meaning. Ac- 
cordingly, when there is no picture to represent a 
word directly, the picture of another word — of the 
same sound but of different meaning — is used to repre- 
sent the sound of the former. Thus, as Tozzer points 
out, the town Tollan, "the place of the rushes," is 
easily represented by a picture of a cluster of reeds, tollin. 
Suppose, however, a town named Toltitlan 
meaning "near Tollan" was the one to be 
written. This would be more difficult to 
express. The Nahua overcame this difficulty 
by making use of the fact that the second 
syllable tlan of the word tetlan meaning 
Fig. 6. "near something" is also found in the word 
tlantli meaning "teeth." Accordingly, they 
were able to represent the name of the town Toltitlan 
meaning "near Tollan" or "near the place of the rushes" 
by adding the picture of teeth to the picture of a cluster 
of reeds (Fig. 6) — the picture of the teeth in this case 
losing its original meaning and suggesting or representing 
instead the sound for "near something." * 

Another excellent illustration — this time in connection 
with proper namesi — is often cited. The name of one of 
the early Mexican kings w T as Itzcoatl meaning "knife- 
snake." In one of the early manuscripts — the Le Tellier 
Codex-— the name of this king is represented pictorially 
1 Op. cii. > 





EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 39 

by a serpent, coatl, with stone knives, itzli, upon his back 
(Fig. 7) ; but in another manuscript — the Vegara Codex 
— the name appears in rebus form; that is, the different 
syllables of the name are represented by pictures the 
sounds of which are practically the same as those of the 
syllables. The first syllable, itz, is represented by a 
weapon armed or ornamented with blades of 
obsidian, itz(tli) ; and second, co, by an 
earthen pot or kettle, co(mitl) ; and the 
third, ail, by the sign for water, ail, placed 
above the pot (Fig. 8). Pictorially this com- 
bination would read "weapon-kettle-water"; 
in rebus fashion, that is phonetically, it gives fig. 7. 
the sound or word Itzcoatl. In the same man- 
ner, as Hoffman points out, we might represent the 
English word whiskey by the pictures of a whis(kbroom) 
or whis(kers) and a key. 

The application of the rebus principle appears to have 
been very common among the Nahuas of Mexico in pre- 
Columbian days. Not only was it applied to place and 
proper names but, as Brinton points out, the 
Nahuas "composed in it words, sentences, and 
£-g p treatises on various subjects." Furthermore, 
Fig. 8. as will appear later, these people were prob- 
ably in the act of evolving an alphabet when 
the Spaniard arrived. The newcomer naturally has- 
tened this process so that the well ordered syllabary 
and alphabet in evidence in post-Columbian manuscripts 
must be in large part ascribed to extraneous influences. 
Not only did the missionary thus hasten the systematiza- 
tion of the syllabary and the arrival of an alphabet, but 




40 THE READING PROCESS 

he utilized in a very interesting manner the native's 
ability to read in rebus fashion, not merely as a medium 
of communication but as a means of memorizing Latin 
formulas. Pater Noster, for example, was represented by 
a flag, pan(tli) ; a stone, te(tl) ; a prickly pear, noch(tli) ; 
and another stone, te(tl) (Fig. 9). 

The Mayas of Yucatan represented an even more ad- 
vanced stage of civilization than the Nahuas. However, 
much less is known regarding the actual status of their 
written language. Unfortunately their manuscripts — 
r?n tf> C1T3 which were lacking neither in number 
pi te noch- te nor m elaborateness — met with delib- 
Fig 9 erate and wholesale destruction at the 

hands of the invaders. Moreover, the 
Maya language and such manuscripts as survived have 
received much less attention from the scholarly priest of 
the early days than did those of the Nahuas. This ac- 
counts in part for our lack of information. While it is 
generally conceded that the Mayas had reached the rebus 
stage, the actual extent of their achievements within this 
is in doubt. The Landa alphabet published in 1864 
seemed to show that they had passed the rebus stage and 
had actually developed an alphabet of twenty-seven 
characters. This together with a certain number of syl- 
lable signs and a few ideograms was supposed to afford a 
key to their writings. However, as Brinton points out, 
subsequent "experience has proven the utter fallacy of 
any such hope" and the real key, if such there is, remains 
still to be determined. 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 41 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Brinton, D. G. — Essays of an Americanist; David McKay, 

1890. 

2. Clodd, Edmond — The Story of the Alphabet; D. Appleton and 

Company, 1900. 

3. Hoffman, W. J. — Beginnings of Writing; D. Appleton and 

Company, 1895. 

4. Huey, E. B. — The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The 

Macmillan Company, 1908. 

5. Mallery, G. — Picture Writing of the American Indian; Tenth 

Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1888-89, Govern- 
ment Printing Office, 1893. 

6. Taylor, Isaac — The Alphabet, I and II; (London), Kegan Paul, 

Trench and Company, 1893. 

7. Tozzer, A. M. — Value of Ancient Mexican Manuscripts in the 

Study of the General Development of Writing; Proceedings 
of the American Antiquarian Society, 1911, pp. 80-101; and 
Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1911, pp. 493- 
505. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE — THE PHONETIC 

STAGE 

III. The phonetic stage. — The distinguishing 
characteristic of the phonetic level of graphic language 
development appears in the fact that signs have come to 
represent sounds quite irrespective of their meaning. All 
previous development tended toward this end. The sim- 
plification of signs as well as their repeated use under 
given circumstances resulted in the more or less conven- 
tionalized sign; the gradual convergence of spoken and 
written language led to a very intimate association be- 
tween graphic signs, meanings, and spoken words; and 
finally, by the use of the rebus device spoken words with 
a variety of meanings came to be designated graphically 
— either on the word or on the syllable basis — by means 
of pictures or signs of things having similar sounds but 
different meanings — the latter being ignored. This 
brought written language to the very threshold of the 
phonetic level — the rebus being to all intents and pur- 
poses for the time being a phonogram. All that remained 
to be done now was to perfect the process. It was neces- 
sary that signs — both spoken and graphic — should be 
completely abstracted from the complexes involving both 
signs and meanings. This being accomplished, it was 
possible to select certain graphic signs to represent invari- 

42 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 43 

ably certain sounds — words, syllables, and letters. And 
this is exactly what happened. However, the process was 
a long and intricate one and by no means all the lan- 
guages which entered the race reached the final goal. 

1. The verbal phonogram. — The phonograms of the 
early phonetic stage are for the most part verbal and 
syllabic. That is, the signs which have come to represent 
sounds may stand for whole words, for syllables, or for 
both words and syllables. The principle of the rebus, 
however, is such as to facilitate syllabification. Few, if 
any, polysyllabic languages remain, therefore, long on the 
verbal level. 

The Chinese language as an example of the verbal 
level. — The Chinese language represents the most re- 
markable instance of a language remaining permanently 
on the verbal level. In part this is no doubt due to the 
fact that it is a monosyllabic language and that syllabifi- 
cation in our sense of the word would be quite out of the 
question. In any event, the development of this lan- 
guage — upon reaching the phonetic level — has taken a 
radically different course from that of most others. Al- 
though compelled to steer clear of many of its intricacies, 
it will be of interest for us to note some of its salient 
features. 

To begin with, the colloquial and the written languages 
are quite distinct. The former consists of a number of 
related dialects which differ about as widely among them- 
selves as the several Romance languages — French, Span- 
ish, and Italian. Of these the Pekingese or Mandarin — 
the official language — is the most prominent. The writ- 
ten language, on the other hand, is uniform throughout 



44 THE READING PROCESS 

China and resembles one dialect about as much as 
another. 

In spite of its vast vocabulary — some 44,000 words — 
the Chinese language has a very limited number of 
sounds, simple verbal sounds in the case of the dialects 
and simple phonograms in the case of the written lan- 
guage. The Pekingese, for example, is said to have only 
420. This means of course that any one sound must 
serve many different meanings. In other words, the Chi- 
nese language contains an unusually large number of 
homophones — words of like sound but different meaning. 
Fortunately the average Chinaman can get along very 
nicely with a vocabulary of from 4000 to 5000 words. 
But even then there are on an average some ten meanings 
for each sound, and some sounds must in the very nature 
of the case be taxed much more heavily than others. The 
word man, for example, serves some 600 different mean- 
ings. Difficult as the situation may appear, the Chinese 
have dealt with it in an altogether interesting and in- 
genious manner — in the case of both the dialects and the 
written language. 

In connection with the spoken language, a variety of 
devices are employed to bring out the different meanings 
of the homophones. One of the most important of these 
involves the use of different tones — the even upper, the 
even lower, the rising, and the falling in the case of the 
Pekingese — the meaning varying with the modulation of 
the voice. Another common device is to employ the 
homophones in pairs — the meaning depending upon the 
combination. These pairs are made up in various ways, 
but very frequently the first member of the pair merely 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 45 

serves to determine the second by indicating which of the 
several meanings is intended. Thus in the case of milk- 
skin meaning cream, the word milk designates very spe- 
cifically the particular kind of skin — there being many 
different kinds of skin. 

The written language, although differing from the dia- 
lects, represents, nevertheless, much the same problems 
and characteristics. An elaborate system of picture 
writing appears to have been developed at an early stage 
— the written characters of to-day being very obviously 
worn down pictures. The pictograph had come to repre- 
sent most of the common objects of everyday environ- 
ment and along with it came the ideograph — two trees 
side by side implying a forest; three trees, density; the 
sun above the horizon, dawn; sun and moon combined, 
brightness; woman and child, good; several persons under 
a roof, a home. At this point the Chinese took another 
normal step in advance. They selected — doubtless grad- 
ually — a considerable number of signs or characters 
already in use in connection with picture writing and 
converted them into phonograms by causing them to 
stand for spoken words. The words thus borrowed from 
the spoken language were of course for the most part 
homophones. How these homophones were made to 
bring out the different meanings for which they stood in 
the case of the colloquial has been indicated. Fortunately 
the homophones were less of a problem for the written 
language. All that was needed was some graphic device 
attached to each phonogram to indicate invariably — 
somewhat after the fashion in which the milk of milk-skin 
indicates the kind of skin — which of the several possible 



46 THE READING PROCESS 

meanings was intended. The Chinese accordingly began 
to use their basic characters — pictographs and ideographs 
— as such devices. Among the different meanings of the 
homophone fang, for instance, were location, room, fra- 
grant, inquire, and hinder. To bring out these meanings, 
there was added to fang, location, the character for earth 
giving earth-fang ; to fang, room, the character for door 
giving door-fang; to fang, fragrant, the character for herb 
giving herb-fang; to fang, inquire, the character for 
words giving words-fang ; to fang, hinder, the character 
for woman giving woman-fang. By combining these 
two kinds of characters — the phonograms and the devices 
or determinatives — the Chinese are able to represent 
graphically practically all their words. The pronuncia- 
tion of the phonograms of the written language differs, 
however, so strongly from the pronunciation of the 
corresponding words used in the dialects and, in addition, 
written expression is so terse and abbreviated in char- 
acter that there can be no such thing as oral reading 
in our sense of the word. The reader of a manuscript 
simply interprets to his listeners as he goes along. 
The various methods of combining words and char- 
acters, it must be pointed out finally, have not only 
solved the problems presented by the homophone but 
that of absorbing the terminology of Western thought 
as well. There appears to have been no occasion what- 
soever to introduce new characters for this purpose. An 
elevator became a "rise-descend-machine" ; parliament, 
a "discuss-govern-country-assembly"; and the absolute, 
the "exclude-opposite." 
With all this, the Chinese written language is, to say 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 47 

the least, a very cumbersome medium for recording and 
communicating thought. In order to become proficient 
in its use an individual must commit to memory an enor- 
mously large number of different characters. The expen- 
diture of time and effort demanded for the mastery of 
these characters is out of all proportion to that required 
for the mastery of a Western language. Such a written 
language constitutes obviously a very serious obstacle to 
popular education and the enlightenment of the masses. 
In spite of this, repeated efforts to modernize the system 
of writing through the adoption of an alphabet have 
uniformly failed. According to recent reports, however, 
official steps have finally been taken and the Pekingese 
dialect has been transliterated on the basis of an alphabet 
of some 39 characters. We are told that the characters 
were chosen from existing Chinese forms and that they 
will continue to be written in vertical order so there may 
be a minimum of departure from established practices. 1 
2. The syllable as phonogram. — The syllabic level — 
on which signs stand for syllables rather than for whole 
words — is often reached very early during the phonetic 
stage and in the case of polysyllabic languages not infre- 
quently at the very outset. The rebus device, as indi- 
cated earlier, facilitates this step. A series of pictures — 
each suggesting the sound of a syllable — comes to stand 
for a polysyllabic word. Frequently — by what is known 
as the principle of aerology — only the first syllables of the 
names of the pictures are used to represent the sounds of 
the syllables of these polysyllabic words. As time goes 
on, the pictures thus used lose all other significance and so 

1 World's Work, 38: 244-45. 



48 THE READING PROCESS 

become pure phonograms; and they tend to become 
stereotyped in form and conventional in use. Unfor- 
tunately there are often many different signs or phono- 
grams for any one syllable. A carefully worked out 
syllabary — such as the Japanese Katakana in which each 
syllable of the language is represented by only one sign — 
is a late phenomenon in the evolution of written lan- 
guage and represents conscious selection rather than nat- 
ural growth. Most syllabaries have, therefore, been very 
cumbersome. Those of Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria 
are good examples. And even Japan to this very day — in 
so far as it uses a syllabary at all — prefers to use the 
Hiragana, a syllabary representing some 300 signs, rather 
than the Katakana which represents only 47. 

The Japanese language as an example of the syllabic 
level. — Little is known of Japanese writing before the 
eastward expansion of Buddhism during the sixth cen- 
tury a.d. At this time the Japanese came in close con- 
tact with Chinese civilization — including the system of 
writing. They mastered the latter in a comparatively 
short time and adopted it as their own. They had 
now two quite distinct languages — the colloquial Jap- 
anese and the written language of the Chinese. They 
were not content to rest here however. Almost imme- 
diately they set to work to devise a written system of 
their own. And by the close of the ninth century they 
had actually evolved two syllabaries — the Katakana and 
the Hiragana — their colloquial having been resolved into 
47 syllables. The Katakana represents 47 signs — one for 
each syllable — these being abbreviated forms of the Chi- 
nese square characters; the Hiragana which is most com- 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 49 

monly used contains some 300 signs — several for each syl- 
lable — the characters having been derived from the Chi- 
nese cursive forms. 

Once these syllabaries had been evolved, the Japanese 
had in their possession instruments by means of which 
they were able to write their colloquial almost as readily 
as we do our own. Unfortunately, however, the Chinese 
system had gained such a strong foothold by that time 
that the use of the syllabaries was relegated largely to 
women and to popular writers — scholarly works and offi- 
cial documents being invariably couched in Chinese. 
With all this, some of Japan's most treasured literary 
works appear in the vernacular. 

As time went on, pure Chinese came to be supplanted 
by the so-called Sinico-Chinese in which the borrowed 
Chinese characters are incorporated into the Japanese 
sentence much as Greek and Latin words are absorbed in 
English. There was this important difference, however — 
and here is the rub. When we borrow foreign terms we 
represent them by means of letters of our own alphabet. 
The Chinese characters which entered into the Sinico- 
Chinese were not represented by means of the syllabaries. 
They remained ideographs — each retaining its distinct 
Chinese form. They merely underwent inflection by the 
use of Japanese particles selected from the syllabaries. 
Sinico-Chinese 1 — in which most of the important works of 
to-day appear — is, therefore, a mixture of Chinese charac- 
ters and Japanese syllables. The former supply the chief 
ideas — as the nouns and the stems of verbs — while the 
latter are used to transcribe the particles and termina- 
tions and to clear up the meanings of the Chinese ideo- 



50 THE READING PROCESS 

graphs to those who are not thoroughly familiar with 
them. The Japanese student faces, therefore, if anything, 
a more prodigious task in learning to read and write than 
does the Chinese — being compelled, as he is, to master 
both the Chinese characters and the syllabaries of his 
own vernacular. The necessity of assimilating the termi- 
nology of Western thought has made the task still more 
difficult. Almost without exception the new terms have 
been borrowed from the Chinese — the characters being 
combined to express the new ideas in the case of both the 
vernacular and the written language, — democracy becom- 
ing "people-power" ; philanthropy, "universal love- 
heart"; photograph, "copy-truth"; phonograph, "gather- 
voice-contrivance" ; electricity, "lightning-spirit" ; geol- 
ogy, "earth-substance-science." 

It is not surprising, therefore, that there should be in 
evidence a growing dissatisfaction with the present sys- 
tem — -its inadequacy being felt most keenly by those in- 
terested in the education and enlightenment of the 
masses. Even now the necessity of reaching the masses 
— for political, social, and economic reasons — compels the 
leading newspapers and journals to publish their articles 
in the vernacular or in Sinico-Chinese accompanied by 
what amounts to practically interlinear translations. 
Thoroughgoing reform is, therefore, only a matter of 
time. 

3. The letter as phonogram. — The syllabic phonogram, 
as we have seen, marks a great advance over the word 
phonogram. However, it is only a step in the right direc- 
tion. The final goal is reached only when syllables have 
been further analyzed and each elementary sound has 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 



51 



TABLE I 

Syllables of Japanese Language — Arrangement Based on the Five 
Vowels and Their Combination with Certain Consonants 





Vowels 


K 


S 


T 


N 


H 


M 


Y 


R 


W 


A 


a 


. ka 


sa 


ta 


na 


ha 


ma 


ya 


ra 


wa 


I 


i 


ki 


shi 


chi . 


ni 


hi 


mi 


yi 1 


ri 


wi a 


U 


u 


ku 


su 


tsu 


nu 


fu 


mu 


yu 


ru 


wu a 


E 


e 


ke 


se 


te 


ne 


he 


me 


ye 1 


re 


we a 





o 


ko 


so 


to 


no 


ho 


mo 


yo 


ro 


wo 



1 Duplicates. 

2 Duplicates. 



come to be represented by a phonogram commonly known 
as a letter. That this goal is reached only gradually in 
consequence of a long drawn out period of development 
is well attested by the history of such alphabets as are 
known to us. What is more, the fact that many peoples 
renowned for marked achievements along other lines have 
failed to evolve alphabets shows that the step is indeed a 
very difficult one. 

As in the case of syllabification, the principle of aerol- 
ogy appears to have played an important part in the 
development of the alphabet. Very frequently signs 
standing for syllables or words came to stand for the 
initial elementary sounds of such syllables or words. In 
this way an elementary sound might at first be repre- 
sented by a number of different signs. That this was 
actually the case is clearly shown by such alphabets as 
the Egyptian. As time went on, the number of signs was 
of course reduced. However, even to-day few alphabets 
have reached the point where each sound is represented 



52 THE READING PROCESS 

by only one sign. Nor do most alphabets make adequate 
provision by means of separate characters for all the ele- 
mentary sounds represented by their respective languages. 
In part this is due to the fact that alphabets are largely 
the product of a more or less haphazard development 
rather than the outcome of conscious selection. More- 
over, it must be borne in mind that alphabets have not in- 
frequently been transmitted from one language to another 
with little or no adaptation. Finally, spoken language is 
constantly undergoing changes so that no alphabet can — 
without constant adaptation — continue to represent its 
sounds with absolute fidelity. 

Ancient systems of writing which reached the alpha- 
betic level. — The cuneiform and the Egyptian hieroglyph- 
ics are the most remarkable examples of the ancient 
systems of writing which in the long course of their de- 
velopment finally reached the alphabetic level. 

The cuneiform. — The cuneiform is the wedge shaped 
script used successively by the ancient nations inhabiting 
the Euphratean and neighboring regions. These wedge 
shaped characters were developed out of a rude picture 
writing by the Sumerians — the pre-Semitic inhabitants of 
these regions — in remote antiquity, possibly from 6000 
to 7000 years before the beginning of our era. These 
people had not only developed a syllabary but they had 
utilized writing to a remarkable extent. When later the 
Semitic Babylonians conquered the Sumerians, they 
adopted much of the culture of the conquered people, 
including the cuneiform script. This they gradually 
adapted to their language — a language radically different 
from the Sumerian — but in spite of the fact that they in- 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 53 

troduced many changes as time went on, their syllabary 
appears to have remained rather cumbersome and un- 
wieldy. Their inscriptions — extending from approxi- 
mately 4500 b.c. to the beginning of our era — appear in 
cuneiform. It is now known that they developed a lit- 
erature of considerable merit; that they had extensive 
libraries in towns and temples — the inscriptions being on 
clay tablets many of which have come down to us; and 
that women as well as men learned to read and write. 

The Assyrians likewise used the cuneiform script 
throughout the period of their national existence — dating 
from 1500 B.C. to 607 b.c. They simplified the Babylonian 
syllabary to a considerable extent, though there still re- 
mained some 500 characters. Sometime during the eighth 
century B.C. the Scythic tribes of Media came in contact 
with the cuneiform script of their neighbors, which they 
adopted — simplifying it subsequently to such a remark- 
able extent that only 96 characters remained. The out- 
come was, of course, a syllabary in the real sense of the 
term. Finally in the time of Darius the cuneiform passed 
into the hands of the Aryan Persians who developed what 
may be termed an alphabet of some 36 characters — 
whether through their own inventive genius or through 
external influences is not known. We may add that for 
many centuries of our era — in fact, down to the eighth 
century — the cuneiform script was practically forgot- 
ten, and it was not until sometime during the nineteenth 
century that scholars rediscovered the keys which enabled 
them to read the inscriptions. 

The Egyptian hieroglyphics. — The Egyptian script has 
an equally interesting though perhaps less fortuitous his- 



54 THE READING PROCESS 

tory. At a comparatively early period in Egyptian civili- 
zation it had passed through the several stages which we 
have enumerated. Indeed, the oldest inscriptions thus 
far unearthed — inscriptions running back some 5000 years 
from the beginning of our era — show that the alphabet 
had arrived even at that early period. Strange to say, 
however, the Egyptians failed to utilize to any extent the 
advantages of their discovery. They continued to use, 
along with words properly indicated by means of letters, 
both syllabic signs and ideographs — the outcome being a 
very cumbersome system of writing. In the course of 
time three different kinds of alphabetic characters came 
into use — the hieroglyphic, the hieratic, and the demotic. 
The hieroglyphic characters were the lineal descendants 
of early picture writing forms — many of them preserving 
their original design to a remarkable extent. In time 
they came to be used largely for monumental and sacred 
purposes. The hieratic characters were simplified forms 
of the hieroglyphic and were used chiefly for secular pur- 
poses and in copying literary manuscripts. The demotic 
— coming into use about 900 B.C. — represented a further 
simplification and were in popular everyday use. The 
Egyptian alphabet consisted originally of 45 symbols but 
in time the number was reduced to 25. 

Origin of modern alphabets. — As Clodd points out, 
"we travel backward along clearly marked lines from our 
own alphabet to the Roman, and thence to the Greek, 
which tradition attributed to the Phoenician." Here, how- 
ever, we come face to face with queries which may never 
be fully answered. As is commonly known, the Phoeni- 
cians were not an inventive people, nor do they, for that 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 55 

matter, appear to have claimed the distinction of having 
originated their own system of writing. They attributed 
it rather to the Egyptians. And for a time the findings 
of modern philologists pointed in this direction. As late 
as 1859 the French Egyptologist, Emanuel de Rouge, an- 
nounced — after a most painstaking comparison of the 
oldest Phoenician characters with the Egyptian hieratic 
forms — that the Phoenician alphabet was clearly of Egyp- 
tian origin. For a time De Rouge's conclusions were gen- 
erally accepted. 

More recently, however, the results of extensive excava- 
tions and investigations in Greece and especially on the 
island of Crete on the part of such scholars as A. J. Evans 
and Flinders Petrie have raised the whole question anew. 
These explorations show that there existed in the Grecian 
Archipelago a great civilization — a civilization which 
rivaled the Babylonian and the Egyptian and extended 
perhaps over nearly as much time as the latter. This 
civilization, now commonly known as the Mycenean — 
although its cradle appears to have been in Crete — came 
in close contact with Mediterranean peoples and with the 
great civilizations of the day. Of chief interest to us, 
however, is the fact that two systems of writing have been 
discovered in Crete — the one pictographic and the other 
linear and possibly to some extent alphabetic. The extent 
to which the linear script is indigenous appears to be an 
open question, particularly since some of the signs bear 
a rather close resemblance to Cypriote, Hittite, and Semi- 
tic forms. 

However that may be, the significant facts for us are 
(1) that there was in wide use among the Myceneans an 



56 THE READING PROCESS 

elaborate system of writing long before their civilization 
was overthrown by the invasion of the Dorians — some- 
time during the twelfth century B.C. — and (2) that the 
commercial greatness of the Phoenicians followed upon 
this — extending from the eleventh to the fourth century 
b.c. This sequence of events gave the Phoenicians every 
opportunity not only to come in contact with the My- 
cenean system of writing but to appropriate it and to dis- 
seminate it among the Greeks in general. In any event, 
before the final Phoenician decline came, their alphabet 
had been perfected and widely disseminated among the 
Greeks. On the other hand it must be borne in mind 
that the Phoenicians — because of the fact that they were 
a dependency of Egypt for several centuries preceding 
their rise into prominence — also had every opportunity of 
coming in contact with the Egyptian system of writing 
and of appropriating the alphabet from this source. 
Finally, as Clodd points out, it is not improbable that 
the Phoenicians may have received elements from various 
sources. As a commercial people they were primarily 
interested in brevity, so much so that — from whatever 
source they may have received their cues — they ended up 
with an alphabet so simple and "of such signal value as to 
have been accepted by the civilized world of the past and 
to have secured, with but slight modifications, a perma- 
nence assured to no other invention of the human race. 
Therefore, the debt we owe these old traders is in no wise 
lessened because the current theory of the derivation of 
our alphabet is doubted." * 

From the eighth century down to 323 B.C. when Alex- 

1 Clodd, Edmond: The Story of the Alphabet, pp. 177-178. 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 57 

ander the Great sacked Tyre, the Greeks gradually "suc- 
ceeded to the sovereignty of the sea. Their factories and 
colonies were planted from East to West, from Odessa to 
Marseilles." In this way the Greek alphabet was spread. 
"The Latin and through it the alphabets of Europe and 
America" were derived from the Western or Chalcidian 
form. 1 

The evolution of the book. — Once written language 
reached the phonetic level, it was of the greatest impor- 
tance that methods and means should be devised whereby 
thought could be easily recorded and rapidly duplicated. 
Primitive man, as we have seen, inscribed his records upon 
a great variety of objects — objects varying all the way 
from splints of bone to massive rock facades. Peoples 
reaching the higher levels of language development have 
almost without exception evolved more elaborate and 
more highly specialized materials. The Mayas of Yuca- 
tan and the Nahuas of Mexico — whose remarkable lin- 
guistic achievements were discussed elsewhere — had 
reached the point where they manufactured large sheets 
of paper — from the leaves of the maguey plant — which 
upon being folded were inclosed between two handsomely 
decorated boards. Tablets of a great variety were in use 
among many early peoples. The Egyptians — probably 
before the days of papyrus — used wooden tablets upon 
which they wrote with ink. The early Greeks and Ro- 
mans used tablets made of soft metals and of wax. The 
most remarkable tablets of which we have any records, 
however, are those which were in use among the ancient 
Babylonians and Assyrians. These were made of clay 

^lodd, Edmond: Op. cit. 



58 THE READING PROCESS 

somewhat after the manner of brick. The inscriptions — 
in cuneiform characters — were impressed upon the surface 
before the tablets were dried in the sun or in ovens spe- 
cially designed for this purpose. Many of these have 
come down to us in excellent condition. 

The roll was, however, by far the most important 
manuscript form in use among ancient peoples. The 
Egyptians began to use the papyrus roll — papyrus being 
manufactured from the papyrus plant which grew in the 
shallow regions of the Nile — at remote times, possibly at 
a period antedating 4000 B.C. A number of sheets of 
papyrus — usually not more than twenty — were pasted to- 
gether end to end to form the roll, the width of the roll 
varying from four to twelve inches. The text was writ- 
ten on the inside — the side on which the fibers ran in a 
horizontal direction — in columns varying in width from 
two to two and one-half inches, the lines running parallel 
to the length of the roll. When it was read the roll was 
manipulated much as an ordinary camera film, the right 
hand attending to the unwinding and the left to the re- 
verse process — column after column being disclosed to 
the reader. At a comparatively early date the use of the 
papyrus roll spread to other nations— especially the 
Greeks and the Romans — among whom it came to be 
used not only for literary purposes but for commercial 
transactions as well. Among the Ionian Greeks and 
the Hebrews the roll appears to have been made more 
commonly of skins — the law of the latter people being 
to this day inscribed upon rolls of parchment. The 
Romans continued to use the papyrus roll until well 
into the fourth century a.d. when it was gradually super- 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 59 

seded by the vellum codex. Among the Arabs, however, 
it continued to be used down to the ninth and tenth cen- 
turies when paper took its place. 

The codex which gradually superseded the roll is the 
common manuscript form of the Middle Ages and the 
immediate forerunner of the modern printed book. In 
general appearance it bore a close resemblance to the book 
— the sheets of vellum or parchment, manufactured from 
the skins of animals, being fastened on one side and 
placed between covers. As compared with the roll, the co- 
dex represented certain advantages which were no doubt 
partly responsible for its rapid adoption once it became 
known. It was more economical. Not only were the 
sheets used on both sides, but it was possible to effect 
erasures and use the parchment over and over again. 
Moreover, the page arrangement greatly facilitated ready 
reference. Finally, the codex became at an early age iden- 
tified with the new religion — a fact which was greatly 
in its favor. 

The introduction of paper. — The Chinese appear to 
have manufactured paper from a very remote period — 
possibly as early as the second century B.C. Sometime 
during the eighth century a.d. the Arabs became ac- 
quainted with the process through Chinese war prisoners. 
They seem to have appreciated the advantages of the 
new writing material, for in a comparatively short time 
we find them manufacturing their own paper from a 
variety of materials. During the succeeding centuries 
the process gradually became known to the various Euro- 
pean peoples. By the fifteenth century paper had prac- 
tically supplanted vellum. 



60 THE READING PROCESS 

It is difficult to appreciate fully the significance of this 
new writing material. It began to supply a relatively 
cheap and abundant medium for manuscript purposes at 
a time when the intellectual interests of Europe were 
growing apace. Moreover, we are warranted in believing 
that it prepared the way for one of the most momentous 
inventions of all times — the invention of printing. It is 
far more than coincident that printing was invented just 
at the time when paper had come into common use. 
Indeed, without an abundant medium upon which to 
print there could have been little incentive to produce 
such an invention. 

The invention of printing. — The Chinese are said to 
have practiced printing from engraved blocks during the 
early centuries of the present era. By the eleventh cen- 
tury they had invented movable types. But as far as we 
know the process did not spread beyond Japan. In any 
event printing from movable blocks appears to have been 
invented quite independently in western Europe about 
the middle of the fifteenth century. The invention as 
such has been generally attributed to Johann Gutenberg 
of Mainz, Germany. However, there have been many 
rival claimants — the most ably defended of these being 
Lourens Janszoon Coster of Haarlem, Holland. For the 
most part the supporters of the latter contend — and not 
without a certain amount of plausible evidence — that the 
Mainz printers had conceived their idea from earlier in- 
ventions on the part of Coster. However that may be, 
the significant facts, as Aldis puts it, are that the "devel- 
opment of the invention may be referred to the decade 
1440-1450" and that "it was at Mainz that the art was 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 61 

first developed to a practical issue" and, finally, that "it 
was from Mainz that this momentous invention spread 
throughout Europe." * 

The spread of printing. — The new invention was des- 
tined to spread rapidly. In large part, no doubt, this was 
due to the fact that printing met a genuine need of the 
times — so much so that the printer was readily received 
wherever he went. More immediately, however, the rapid 
spread was occasioned by the sacking of Mainz by Arch- 
bishop Adolphus in 1642. This dispersed the printers — 
first over Germany and then throughout Europe. Before 
the end of the fifteenth century, eighteen European coun- 
tries were printing books, according to Rawlings, — Italy 
heading the list with seventy-one cities in which presses 
were at work, Germany following with fifty, France with 
thirty-six, Spain with twenty-six, Holland with fourteen, 
and England with four. 

According to early Spanish authorities printing was 
introduced into America in 1535 — the first book being 
printed in Mexico City. The first printing establishment 
in North America, exclusive of Mexico, was organized in 
1639 at Harvard College. It is still in existence, being 
known as the University Press. The second colonial 
press appears to have been established in Boston in 1676. 

The improvement of printing. — The simple Mainz 
press — modified slightly from time to time — continued 
to meet the needs of printing down to the beginning of 
the nineteenth century — a period of nearly three hundred 
and fifty years. Then followed a series of inventions 
which almost completely revolutionized printing. At the 

'Aldis, H. G.: The Printed Book. 



62 THE READING PROCESS 

beginning of the nineteenth century the maximum output 
of the hand press then in use was limited to two hundred 
and fifty impressions per hour. By the middle of the 
century — largely because of inventions which resulted in 
the application of steam and in the development of the 
cylinder press and the type revolving machine — it was 
possible with a proper grouping of machines to secure an 
output of as many as 20,000 impressions per hour. This 
advance had of course a far reaching effect upon news- 
papers and magazines. Those which had hitherto "been 
limited in their ability to furnish the papers rapidly 
increased their issues,. and many new ones were started." 
The inventions of the second half of the century — culmi- 
nating in such machines as the rotary web press and the 
linotype — have wrought improvements which fall little 
short of the miraculous. Not only do the large news- 
paper presses of to-day print with lightning speed — the 
latest double octuple press turning out 300,000 eight 
page, 150,000 sixteen page, or 75,000 thirty-two page 
newspapers per hour — but they cut, fold, paste, and 
count the papers as they are delivered in absolutely fin- 
ished form from the press. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Aldis, H. G. — The Printed Book; (London), Cambridge Uni- 

versity Press, 1916. 

2. Budge, E. A. W. — Egyptian Language; (London), Kegan Paul, 

Trench, Triibner and Company, Ltd., 1899. 

3. Clodd, Edmond — The Story of the Alphabet; D. Appleton and 

Company, 1900, chapters 4-10. 

4. Evans, A. J. — Scripta Minoa; (Oxford), Clarenden Press, 

1909. 



EVOLUTION OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE 63 

5. Francis, L. G. — "Egyptian Language and Writing"; Encyclo- 

pedia Britannica, 11th Edition, IX, pp. 57-65. 

6. Giles, H. A. — China and the Chinese; The Macmillan Com- 

pany, 1902, chapter 1. 

"Chinese Language"; Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th 

Edition, VI, pp. 216-222. 

7. Hoe, Robert — A Short History of the Printing Press; Printed 

and Published by Robert Hoe, N. Y., 1902. " 

8. Hoffman, W. J. — Beginnings of Writing; D. Appleton and 

Company, 1895. 

9. Huey, E. B. — The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The 

Macmillan Company, 1908, chapters 8 and 12. 

10. Longford, J. H. — Japan of the Japanese; Chas. Scribner's 

Sons, 1912. 

11. MacCauley, Clay — Introductory Course in Japanese; Yoko- 

hama, 1906, pp. 1-20. 

12. Petrie, M. M. Flinders — The Formation of the Alphabet; 

British School of Archeology in Egypt, III, (London), 
Macmillan and Company, Ltd., 1912. 

13. Rawlings, Gertrude B. — The Printed Booh; D. Appleton and 

Company, 1901. 

14. Rogers, W. R. — "Cuneif orm" ; Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th 

Edition, VII, pp. 629-632. 

15. Rust, G. H. — The History of Printing; Department of Print- 

ing, Chicago Normal School, 1901. 

16. Taylor, Isaac — The Alphabet; (London), Kegan Paul, Trench 

and Company, 1883. 



CHAPTER IV 

ENGLISH SPELLING — PRESENT STATUS AND PENDING 

SIMPLIFICATION 

It now becomes our task — after tracing the evolu- 
tion of written language from crude pictography to 
alphabets and printed books — to examine more closely 
the alphabet to which we have fallen heir. Theoretically 
an alphabet should represent one character for each sound 
in the language, and each sound should be represented 
by only one character. There should be no omissions 
and no duplications. Such an alphabet would be truly 
phonetic and would constitute the greatest possible boon 
for a language. Problems of spelling and pronunciation 
would scarcely exist since a normal individual would be 
able to spell a word upon hearing it and pronounce it 
upon seeing it. Such a language could be readily acquired 
by children and foreigners; and, furthermore, it would 
be economical for the printer and the reader since there 
would be no surplus characters. 

Unphonetic character of modern alphabets. — Unfortu- 
nately the alphabets of the more important modern lan- 
guages are not generally phonetic. The Spanish and the 
Italian come perhaps as close to it as any, while the 
English and the French deviate most widely. Of the 

latter, French represents without question the looser re- 

64 



ENGLISH SPELLING 65 

lationship between symbols and sounds, but its spelling is 
simpler than that of English. 

Authorities are generally agreed that alphabets tend to 
grow less phonetic — unless consciously adapted from time 
to time as in the case of the Spanish and the Italian. 
Spoken and written language forms represent tendencies 
which are essentially at variance — the former changing 
continually; the latter becoming more and more stereo- 
typed and fixed. It must be borne in mind, too, that an 
alphabet may acquire irregularities in passing from one 
people to another. This is exactly what happened when 
the Roman alphabet became our own. Linguistic admix- 
tures — such as followed upon the Norman conquest — act 
in the same manner. 

The English alphabet. — Unfortunately the English 
alphabet has become quite incapable of representing the 
sounds of the language in an adequate and consistent 
manner. As a matter of fact it has never met our needs 
any too well. It was from the very beginning a better- 
instrument to represent the sounds of Latin than those 
of Old English. Nevertheless, it was for centuries a rela- 
tively phonetic alphabet — its present inadequacy being 
due largely to subsequent changes in the sounds of the 
language, especially those involving a progressive differ- 
entiation and displacement of vowel sounds. As consti- 
tuted at present the English alphabet although consisting 
of twenty-six characters represents only twenty-three 
sound symbols — k making c superfluous and q and x 
being of no intrinsic service. Our speech sounds on the 
other hand are variously estimated from thirty-eight to 
forty-four. In other words, we are attempting to repre- 



66 THE READING PROCESS 

sent on an average approximately two speech sounds 
through each alphabetic symbol. Nor is this all, for it is 
the vowel situation which introduces the most serious 
complications. We have from fifteen to eighteen vowel 
sounds and only five characters to represent them. The 
consonant situation is far more satisfactory since the 
twenty-four sounds are represented by eighteen charac- 
ters exclusive of the three which are superfluous. 

Vowel characters representing several sounds, — As 
Professor Lounsbury 1 points out, "to make up for this 
deficiency of letters, two courses lay open to the users 
of English ; rather two courses were forced upon them" : 
It was possible on the one hand to represent two or 
more sounds by means of one character; on the other 
hand certain combinations of vowels, consonants and 
vowels, or consonants might be chosen to represent 
invariably certain sounds. Unfortunately the first 
course was for the most part adopted — there being 
only two instances in which combinations, made available 
by way of the second course, "have an invariable or 
nearly invariable value. One of these is aw found in such 
words as bawl and lawn" and "the other is ee seen in seen 
itself as well as in a number of other words." All other 
combinations or digraphs came to represent now one 
sound and now another. This being the case each of the 
several vowel characters has come to represent a variety 
of sounds. In consequence of which a is found in such 

1 The illustrations of this and succeeding pages have been drawn 
for the most part from Professor Lounsbury's English Spelling and 
Spelling Rejorm — a book which should be read by every intelligent 
individual who speaks the English language. 



ENGLISH SPELLING 67 

words as father, fall, ask, am, care, late, about; e in be, 
let, there, pervert; i in ice, ill, machine, bird; o in note, 
not, lord, wolf, work, do; and u in rule, but, full, urn. 

Vowel sounds represented by a variety of characters 
and combinations of characters. — Nor does this tell the 
whole story. If each of the several groups of vowel 
sounds — the different sounds of a for instance — were con- 
sistently represented by one and the same symbol or 
combination of symbols, the situation would be less in- 
volved. But such is not the case, for many of the vowel 
sounds may be represented by a variety of characters or 
combinations of characters. Thus the a in father is rep- 
resented by ua in guard, ea in heart, and e in sergeant; 
the a in am by ua in guarantee, and ai in plaid; the a in 
care by ai in hair, ay in prayer, e in there, and ei in their; 
the a in fall by o in song, au in taught, aw in saw, oa in 
broad, and ou in thought; the a in late by ai in hail, ay in 
day, ea in steak, ei in veil, e in eh, ao in grao£, and au in 
gauge. The e in be is represented by ee in meet, ea in 
bean, ei in se^e, ie in believe, ay in gi/ay, ae in aegas, and 
i in machine; and the e in let by a in any, ea in health, ai 
in said, ay in says, ei in heifer, and eo in leopard. The 
i in ice is represented by y in type, ie in die, ye in £?/e, ei 
in height, ai in aisie, ey in eye, and ^y in buy; and the i in 
ill by y in system, e in English, e in pretty, o in women, 
u in business, ie in siet>e, and m in &m7df. The o in noie 
is represented by oa in boat, oe in toe, ou in shoulder, ow 
in snow, ew in sew, oo in /foor, eaw in beau, and eo in 
yeoman; and the o in not by a in w/iat. The u in rate is 
represented by the o in move, oe in s/^oe, oo in fool, ou in 
youth, ue in true, ui in /rm£, e^ in neuter, ew in sewer, 



68 THE READING PROCESS 

ieu in adieu; the u in full by o in wolf, and oo in /oof; 
the u in fo/£ by o in love, ou in touch, oo in blood; and 
the it in ^m by 6 in her, i in /ir, o in wor/c, ea in learn, 
and the ow in flourish. The three diphthongs ai, ou, and 
oi are also irregular. The sound of ai is represented by i 
in hide, y in £?/pe, ie in lie, ye in Zt/6, ei in height, ey in 
ei/e, and 2/2/ in 62/7/ ; that of ou by ow in now; and that of 
oi by oy in 60?/. 

Irregularities in case of digraphs. — The many di- 
graphs, as Professor Lounsbury continues to point out, 
are characterized "by the same variableness, the same 
irregularity, and the same lawlessness," aw and ee consti- 
tuting the only exception. Thus ai is found in fail, pair, 
said, aisle, and plait; ay in lay, and quay; ea in beast, 
weather, heard, bear, heart, and great; ei in veil, seize, 
their, height, and heifer; ey in they, and key; eo in 
people, leopard, and yeoman; ie in chief, lie, and friend; 
oa in oar, and broad; oe in foe, shoe, and does; 00 in 
moon, wood, flood, door; and ou in £/iow, 2/ow, 80U l> ought, 
would, cough, and flourish; ow in down, and 6Jow. Di- 
graphs in which u is the first letter have their own 
peculiar irregularities. Thus u may have the sound of w 
as in the ua of language, the ue of conquest, the m of 
anguish, and the 2/0 of quota. It may be long as in the 
we of true, or it may be silent as in fatigue. Finally, ui is 
found in words varying as widely in pronunciation as 
guide, build, and fruit. 

Relationship between vowel sounds and vowel charac- 
ters in Spanish. — The reader will find it of interest at this 
point to note — by way of contrast — the utter simplicity 
of the Spanish vowel system as summarized below : 



ENGLISH SPELLING 69 

The Spanish vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and occasionally y. Each 
vowel has one invariable sound. 

The sound of a is full, open as in far, father, farm, alarm. 

The sound of e is an intermediate sound between a in mate 
and short e in met, as in eh! weight. 

The sound of i is the same as in police, machine. 

The sound of o is as in for, order, lord, form. 

The sound of u is the same as short oo in wool, or u in hull, 
pull, push. 

All vowels should be clearly and distinctly sounded in all cases, 
except u in the syllables gue, gui, que, qui, when it is usually silent. 
When sounded in gue, gui, it is marked with a dieresis, thus : 
gue, gui. 1 

The consonant situation. — Fortunately our consonant 
system is — in spite of numerous exceptions — compara- 
tively phonetic. "Were it otherwise, were there," as 
Professor Lounsbury puts it, "with the consonants the 
same degree of irregularity which exists with the vowels, 
the same degree of variableness in the representation of 
sounds, the same widely prevalent indifference to anal- 
ogy, knowledge of English spelling would not be delayed, 
as it is now, for no more than two or three years beyond 
the normal time of its acquisition ; it would be the work of 
a life time. Mastery of it, under existing conditions never 
fully gained by some, would in such circumstances never 
be acquired by anybody who learned anything else." 2 
As it is, there is in Evidence in connection with our con- 
sonants a marked tendency for each character to repre- 
sent one sound only and for each sound to be represented 
regularly by the same character. Unfortunately there 
are six consonantal sounds for which our alphabet makes 

1 Appleton , s New Spanish Dictionary, p. v. 

3 English Svellina and Spelling Reform, pp. 160-161. 



70 THE READING PROCESS 

no provision. These are the hard initial sound in then, 
the soft initial sound in thin, and the sounds represented 
by ng in bring, ch in church, sh in ship, and s in pleasure. 
The first two are invariably represented by th and so do 
not give rise to orthographic complications, but the reader 
is left without any adequate rule regarding pronunciation. 
In connection with the remaining four sounds confusion 
is inevitable. The combination ng has different values in 
singer and finger; ch represents not merely the ch sound 
in church but it appears in chaise, character, archangel, 
and choir; the sound of sh in ship is represented also by 
ce in ocean, ci in social, s in sugar, t in satiate, ti in nation, 
xi in anxious, sci in conscience, and si in vision; and the s 
in pleasure is represented by si in occasion, z in azure, 
and zi in glazier. 

Silent letters. — The prevalence of silent letters— letters 
which have been rendered useless through changes in 
pronunciation and in some cases letters which have found 
their way into our words by way of derivation or through 
error of one kind or another — constitutes another defect 
in our consonant system. Thus we have a g in gnaw, a k 
in know, a w in wrong, an I in could, a ph in phthisic, a b 
in climb, an n in autumn, a w in plow, an h in oh, a k in 
sick, a b in debt, a c in scene, a g in sigw, an h in g/ios£, 
a p in receipt, an s in island. Moreover, double con- 
sonants commonly represent a single sound. Accord- 
ingly, we have a useless d in arfd, a useless / in affairs, 
a useless <7 in e<7<7, a useless J in wiM, a useless ra in 
commerce, a useless r in arrive, a useless s in professor, a 
useless £ in battle, and so ad infinitum. Occasionally one 
character represents more than one sound. Thus the p 



ENGLISH SPELLING 71 

of cupboard has the sound of b, and / in of has the sound 
of v. In some cases a simple consonant sound is repre- 
sented by a digraph. The sound of / in such words as 
philosophy is accordingly represented by ph and the 
sound of final t in such verb forms as looked by ed. 

Causes leading up to present irregularities. — It is 
scarcely necessary to adduce further evidence in support 
of the contention that our English spelling is irregular 
and anything but phonetic. We shall, therefore, turn 
our attention to some of the causes which have given rise 
to the present situation. In part these have already been 
referred to. We have seen, for instance, that the alpha- 
bet which we inherited from the Romans did not fully 
meet our needs at the start. It has also been pointed out 
that much confusion resulted from such linguistic ad- 
mixtures as followed upon the Norman conquest. More- 
over, it must be borne in mind that we have continued to 
borrow words to this very day — in fact, borrowing plays 
the same part in the growth of our vocabulary as com- 
pounding does in the case of the Chinese. Fortunately 
we have drawn most heavily upon Latin — a fact which 
accounts for many of the regularities found in our spell- 
ing. But we have by no means confined our borrowing 
to Latin. In some instances we have drawn freely upon 
such sources as the French, Scandinavian, Dutch, Italian, 
and Russian languages. That this promiscuous borrow- 
ing — in the absence of proper adaptation — should lead to 
orthographic irregularities was of course quite inevitable. 

But the chief cause of the irregularities in our spelling 
must be sought for elsewhere. Nor is it difficult to find. 
Before the advent of the printer and the compiler of the 



72 THE READING PROCESS 

dictionary, spelling tended on the whole to keep pace with 
the changes in speech. It was, therefore, relatively pho- 
netic. With all this there were, as might be expected, 
many irregularities and much variation — each one spell- 
ing within certain limits much as he pleased. The stand- 
ards for a given period were of course largely determined 
by the professional scribes — on the whole a capable and 
scholarly body of men. With the coming of the printer 
the control of the standards passed into the hands of a 
body of men inferior in scholarship and primarily inter- 
ested in conventionality. Moreover, there were — during 
the early centuries of printing — no authoritative diction- 
aries to guide the printer. Consequently spelling — which 
was becoming more and more stereotyped under the in- 
fluence of the printer — varied much from place to place. 
Wten the compilers of the dictionary arrived on the 
scene in earnest — during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries — they were unfortunately not equal to the task 
before them. Their respect for tradition far outweighed 
their knowledge of English. Accordingly — instead of 
adequately tracing the history of words and selecting the 
simplest and most phonetic forms — they lent their sanc- 
tion to many of the irregularities which had already 
become dear to the hearts of men. In large part this was 
done under the guise of derivation — not infrequently 
false derivation — for men like Johnson were sticklers for 
tradition and standpatters rather than scholars. As 
Professor Brander Matthews points out: 

It was a grave mistake that the mismade spelling thus casually 
manufactured was accepted by Bailey, and after him by Dr. John- 
son whose Dictionary published in the middle of the eighteenth 



ENGLISH SPELLING 73 

century gave it currency and authority, which his more ignorant 
disciple Walker only helped to extend and establish. And if the 
English language has to-day the worst spelling of any of the mod- 
ern languages, this is due largely to the weight of his ponderous 
personality. If he had only known just a little more about the his- 
tory of his own language, and if he had exerted his dominating 
influence against the more obvious absurdities and inconsistencies 
foisted into our spelling by the narrow pedantry of arrogant proof- 
readers, secure in a perilous half -knowledge — in short, if Dr. John- 
son had not only known more about English but had also cared 
more — our orthography would be less unsatisfactory to-day and it 
would be more easily set right. 

In his regard for Latin, and in his ignorance of English as it 
had been before the printers came, Johnson accepted comptroller, 
ignoring the older controller. He allowed sovereign and foreign 
(as though they had something to do with the Latin regno) instead 
of the older soverain (Milton's sovran) and forrain. He coun- 
tenanced debt and doubt, with the useless and disfiguring b, which 
was thrust in by earlier pedants. He kept a Latin p in receipt, 
though he left it out of deceit. He spelled deign one way and 
disdain another. He was willing to leave a needless and mislead- 
ing s in island, although it had been Hand in Shakespeare's time. 
He seems to have supposed that the older English agast would 
look more ghostlike if spelt aghast. He cast out the Shake- 
spearean dke for the labored ache. He kept up the accidental and 
perfectly useless distinction in the spelling of the final syllables 
of accede and exceed, of precede and proceed? 

Since the days of Johnson, English scholarship has 
thoroughly unraveled the many problems connected with 
the history and derivation of our words. In consequence 
we have to-day a motley array of dictionaries — diction- 
aries unsurpassed in excellence and completeness by those 
of any other language. In spite of this our spelling — 
although relatively uniform throughout the English- 
speaking world — has remained irregular and unphonetic. 
To be sure there have been many changes — some for the 

1 Simplified Spelling, pp. 5 and 38. 



74 THE READING PROCESS 

better and some for the worse — but through all these 
years there has been at work no recognized standardizing 
agency such as the French Academy and similar bodies in 
other countries, notably Spain and Italy. The best that 
our dictionary compilers could do, therefore, was to rep- 
resent the situation as it is, indicating the variations in 
spelling and sanctioning — as many have done consist- 
ently — the use of the simpler forms. Any further step 
would have brought upon them the anathema of the 
traditionalist. In consequence progress has been slow. 

Social bearings of present system of spelling. — The 
character of our spelling affects our interests from various 
angles. Ever since the beginning of the last century the 
English language has been gaining in influence, so much 
so, in fact, that it now far outclasses in numbers using it, 
its nearest competitors-— the Spanish, French, and Ger- 
man languages. That it is rapidly assuming an inter- 
national status is obvious. Indeed, we are not far amiss 
when we predict that there is but one obstacle — the 
unphonetic and irregular character of its spelling — to 
prevent it from becoming a world language in the course 
of the present century. Then, too, for decades to come 
we as Americans will be confronted with the problem of 
assimilating the immigrant. The extent to which lan- 
guage affords the key to Americanization is astounding — 
though all too little appreciated. Here, too, the character 
of our spelling stands in our way. 

Beyond this, the, character of our spelling reacts un- 
favorably upon the educative process. Not only does it 
impose upon normal English-speaking children an unrea- 
sonable spelling grind, but it complicates almost beyond 



ENGLISH SPELLING 75 

comprehension — as will appear in the next chapter — the 
problem of teaching children to read. Nor is this all, but 
as Professor Calvin Thomas points out: 

Right at the threshold of life, when the young mind is beginning 
to ask for the reason of things, and when every principle of sound 
education requires that this propensity be developed and strength- 
ened by appropriate stimuli and discipline, just then we deluge the 
learner with an avalanche of irrationality. It is strictly true that 
the foolishness of our English spelling exerts a poisonous influence 
on our whole primary education. 1 

Again in spite of the fact that we devote approximately 
one half of the time in our elementary schools to the 
language arts — reading, language, spelling, and penman- 
ship — the American child leaves this division of the edu- 
cational system on the whole meagerly equipped with 
skill in the use of language — in part at least because of 
the character of our spelling. Nor are these difficulties 
entirely obviated in succeeding divisions. Many a high 
school teacher of English is compelled to devote much of 
his time to the correction of the faulty spelling of the 
pupils. And as for college students, the writer is forced 
to conclude, after an intimate classroom experience with 
hundreds of senior college and graduate students, that 
few ever reach the point where they have really mastered 
a guide to pronunciation such as Webster's key or the 
scientific alphabet used in the Standard Dictionary. 

Spelling reform. — As indicated earlier, changes in spell- 
ing are by no means foreign to our language. But un- 
fortunately, because of the absence of a controlling 
influence, these have been for the most part haphazard — 

1 The Amelioration of Our Spelling, p. 38. 



76 THE READING PROCESS 

now for the better and now for the worse. Because of 
changes for the better, we now write set, dim, fish, 
public, era, fantasy, wagon, fruit, forgetfulness, honor, 
dog, music, instead of sette, dimme, fysshe, publick, aera, 
phantasy, waggon, fructe, forget fullness, honour, dogge, 
musique. On the other hand because of changes for the 
worse, we now write downfall, downhill, miscall, unroll, 
which appeared in Johnson's dictionary as downfal, dowris- 
hil, miscal, unrol; also we write kissed, blessed, looked, 
tossed although these appear in the original works of our 
earlier poets as kist, blest, lookt, tost. 

Reform in order to be effective must obviously be con- 
trolled and directed. As far as method of procedure is 
concerned, two courses are open — one radical and the 
other gradual. A radical reform would involve the adop- 
tion of a phonetic alphabet — one in which each of the 
forty or more sounds in our language would be repre- 
sented invariably by one and the same character. The 
scientific alphabet — also known as the N. E. A. alphabet 
— represents such a group of characters, although the 
added symbols are probably not sufficiently distinct in 
form. As Professor Krapp points out, "the advantages 
of such a reform, if it could be carried through, would be 
undeniably great. Our spelling would then be logical 
and systematic. Foreigners learning English would be 
relieved of one of the chief difficulties which now lie in 
their way. Both practically and theoretically such a 
system of phonetic spelling would approach the ideal of 
the relation which should exist between the spoken and 
the written word." * But as he continues to point out, 

1 Krapp, G. P.: Modern English, pp. 174-175. 



ENGLISH SPELLING 77 

such a reform is for a long time to come quite out of the 
question — in part because "the English-speaking race," as 
Professor Brander Matthews has put it, "is not logical" 
and "never has been captivated by any thoroughgoing 
scheme of reform. In law, in politics, in life generally 
the two nations who have English for their mother tongue 
have always revealed themselves as opportunists content 
to take their reform piecemeal, going forward tentatively 
and advancing very slowly." * More immediately a radi- 
cal scheme is out of the question because the problem is 
neither understood nor appreciated by the majority of 
the educated English-speaking public — not to speak of 
the masses. A preliminary educative campaign extend- 
ing over many years would, therefore, be quite indis- 
pensable. And the gradual introduction of the most 
urgently needed improvements may after all constitute 
the best method of waging such a campaign. 

History of reform movement. — In any event the 
reform movement — now well under way — is proceeding 
upon the principle of gradual improvement. The move- 
ment may be said to date back to 1875 when the American 
Philological Association appointed a committee to con- 
sider the problem of spelling reform. In 1883 the Philo- 
logical Association and the Philological Society (London) 
issued a joint report — a report which contained recom- 
mendations for a rather thoroughgoing simplification. 
Meanwhile spelling reform associations had been organ- 
ized both in this country and in England — their object 
being to promote the adoption of the recommendations 
made by the philologists. In spite of the able personnel 

1 Cyclopedia of Education (Paul Monroe, Editor), Vol. V. 



78 



THE READING PROCESS 



of these organizations no practical reforms were achieved 
for years, partly because the proposals for simplification 
were somewhat too sweeping — to start with at least — 
and partly because the funds which these societies had at 
their command were entirely too inadequate to insure 
effective campaigns. The first practical step was taken by 
the N. E. A. in 1898 when it adopted the following sim- 
plifications : 



tho for though 


thoroly 


for thoroughly 


altho for although 


catalog 


for catalogue 


thru for through 


decalog 


for decalogue 


thruout for throughout 


pedagog 


for pedagogue 


thoro for thorough 


program 


for programme 


thorofare for thoroughfare 


prolog 


for prologue 



These spellings were henceforth used in the publications 
of the association and by a number of educational 
journals. 

The Simplified Spelling Board.— In 1906 the Simpli- 
fied Spelling Board was organized — its immediate object 
being "to promote by systematic and continued effort the 
gradual simplification of English spelling." The organi- 
zation began its work under auspicious circumstances. 
It drew its membership from such sources as "the Ameri- 
can Philological Association, the Philological Society 
(London), the Spelling Reform Association, the Modern 
Language Association of America, the National Educa- 
tion Association, the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, and other representative bodies of 
scholars and educators, as well as from the front rank of 
men of letters and men of affairs"; and it received the 
financial backing of Andrew Carnegie — which enabled it 



ENGLISH SPELLING 79 

to carry on an effective educational campaign from the 
very outset. In 1908 a similar organization — the Simpli- 
fied Spelling Society — was formed in England. 

Policy of the Simplified Spelling Board. — The policy 
of the Simplified Spelling Board has from the outset been 
one of moderation. One of its chief aims has been to 
create a consciousness on the part of the American public 
regarding existing conditions and to direct attention 
toward the desirability of reform. At no time has the 
Board proposed sudden or sweeping reforms. It recog- 
nizes the fact that there are — in spite of great irregulari- 
ties — many rules and analogies in English. These it de- 
sires to extend. Accordingly one of its most immediate 
tasks has been to get rid of needless exceptions and silent 
letters. In general its recommendations have been based 
upon the following principles: 

(1) When current usage offers a choice of spellings, to adopt 
the shortest and simplest. Examples: blest, not blessed 
(1 sil.) ; catalog, not catalogue; center, not centre; check, 
not cheque, or checque; gage, not gauge; gram, not 
gramme; honor, not honour; license, not licence; maneu- 
ver, not manoeuvre; mold, not mould; plow, not plough; 
quartet, not quartette; rime, not rhyme; tho, not though; 
traveler, not traveller. 

(2) Whenever practicable, to omit silent letters. Examples: 
activ, not active; anser, not answer; bluf, not bluff; 
deflnit, not definite; det, not debt; eg, not egg; engin, not 
engine; frend, not friend; hart, not heart; helth, not 
health; promis, not promise; scool, not school; shal, not 
shall; suffraget, not suffragette; thru, not through; 
trolly, not trolley; yu, not you. 

(3) To follow the simpler rather than the more complex of 
existing analogies. Examples : aher, not acre; buro, not 
bureau; deciet, not deceit; enuf, not enough; masherade, 



80 THE READING PROCESS 

not masquerade; spritely, not sprightly; telefone, not 
telephone; tung, not tongue; wize, not wise. 

(4) Keeping in view that the logical goal of the movement is 
the eventual restoration of English spelling to the fonetic 
basis from which in the course of centuries and thru 
various causes it has widely departed, to propose no 
changes that ar inconsistent with that ideal. 1 

It will be observed that these principles do not involve 
any fundamental readjustment between alphabetic char- 
acters and sounds. Such a readjustment will be under- 
taken gradually as the public becomes prepared for the 
step— first, doubtless, in connection with the consonants. 
The initial move might well include, as the Board indi- 
cates, "making a definite choice of c or k for the sound 
unambiguously represented by k" and the substitution of 
s for c pronounced like s, of z for s pronounced like z, and 
j for g pronounced like j. Readjustments in the case of 
the vowels and diphthongs will be much more difficult 
and will doubtless represent "the last step to a completely 
simplified spelling." 

Activities of the Simplified Spelling Board. — One of 
the first steps of the Board was to send forth a list of 300 
common words of which alternate spellings — one more 
simple and regular than the other — are given by the 
leading dictionaries. Those who were in sympathy with 
the movement were asked to use the simpler forms as 
far as practicable. Subsequently other lists have been 
prepared. The most recent contains the following 25 
words — issued "in response to requests for a brief list of 
words in simplified spelling, especially suited for use in 

'See "Selected References" (4). 



ENGLISH SPELLING Si 

business correspondence, to supplement the 12 words of 
theN. E. A.: 



ad 


bil(d) 


fil(d) 


liv(d) 


tel 


addrest 


buro 


fixt 


reciet 


telefone 


anser(d) 


det 


giv 


reciev(d) 


twelv 


ar 


engin 


hav 


shal 


wil 


askt 


enuf 


insted 


shipt 


yu 



The Board has also issued from time to time circulars 
and pamphlets designed to supply needed information. 
Recently A Handbook of Simplified Spelling has been 
prepared. This offers an account of the origin and his- 
tory of the movement, arguments in favor of simplifica- 
tion, replies to objections, rules selected for present 
emphasis, and a dictionary list of the words affected. 
The following rules — thus far adopted by the Board — 
will afford the reader a bird's-eye view of the scope 
embraced by the activities of the Simplified Spelling 
Board : 

Note. Words used as illustrations in the rules and exam- 
ples ar printed in italics, if new spellings ; in roman, if given 
as preferd or alternativ spellings by one or more of the leading 
American dictionaries (Century, Standard, Webster's) and 
not qualified as "simplified," "new," "obsolete," or the like. 
«, ce, initial or medial. Spel e. Examples: ciclopedia, esthetic, 
medieval, fenix, maneuver, subpena ; but : alumnae, striae, etc. 
Note, ae, ce, ar now usually written ae, oe. Other cases 
of ae, oe, medial, as in canoeist, Gaelic, subpenaed, etc., ar not 
affected. 

bt pronounst t. Drop silent b. Examples: det, dettor, dout, in- 
detted, redout. 

Note. Eetain b, if pronounst, in subtil(e). 
ceed final. Spel cede. Examples: excede, procede, succede. 



82 THE READING PROCESS 

ch. pronounst like c in car. Drop silent h, except before e, i, y. 
Examples: caracter, clorid(e), corns, cronic, eco, epoc, me- 
canic, monarc, scalar, scool, stomac, tecnical; but : architect, 
chemist, monarchy. 

double consonant before e final silent. Drop last 2 letters. Ex- 
amples: bagatel, bizar, cigaret, creton, crevas, gavot, gazet, 
giraf, gram, program, quadril, quartet, vaudevil. 

double consonant final. Reduce double to single; but in -11 only 
after a short vowel, and in -ss only in monosillables. Retain 
gross, hiss, off, puss. Examples: ad, bil, bluf, buz, clas, dot, 
dul, eg, glas, les, los, mes, mis, pas, pres, shot, tel, wil; but 
not : al for all, rol for roll, needles for needless, etc. 

e final silent. In the following cases drop e: 

a) After a consonant preceded by a, short vowel strest. Ex- 

amples: bad (bade), giv, hav, liv, centiped (when so pro- 
nounst). 

b) In ar(e), gon(e), and in wer(e) when not pronounst to 

rime with there. 

c) In the unstrest final short sillables ide, ile, ine, ise, ite, 

ive, pronounst as if speld id, il, in, is, it, iv. Examples: 
activ, bromid, comparativ, definit, determin, engin, ex- 
amin, favorit, genuin, hostil, iodin, imagin, infinit, nativ, 
opposit, positiv, practis, promts, textil. 

Note. The ordinary use of e final after a single con- 
sonant is to indicate that the preceding vowel has a 
pronunciation different from that which it would nor- 
mally hav if the consonant in question wer final, as in 
bar, bare; hat, hate; her, here; them, theme; sir, sire; 
bid, bide; con, cone; run, rune. Hence the e final is 
retaind in such words as arrive, care, confuse, fine, mile, 
polite, ride, rode, and also in bromide, iodine, etc., when 
pronounst with the i of line, side. 

d) After lv and rv. Examples: involv, resolv, twelv, valv; 

carv, curv, deserv, serv. 

e) After v or z when preceded by a digraf representing a long 

vowel or a difthong. Examples: achiev, believ, deciev, 
freez, gauz, leav, reciev, sneez. 



ENGLISH SPELLING 83 

/) In oe final pronounst o. Examples : fo, ho, ro, to, wo. 

Note. Eetain e in inflections -oed, -oes; as foes, not 
fas, hoed, not hod. 

ea pronounst as in head or as in heart. Drop the silent letter. 
Examples: bred, brehfast, lied, helth, hevy, insted, lether, 
plesure, welth, wether; hart, harty, harth. 

ed final pronounst d. When the change wil not suggest a wrong 
pronunciation, drop silent e, reducing a preceding double to a 
single consonant. Examples: anserd, cald, carrid, delay d, 
doubld, employd, examind, fild, followd, marrid, pleasd, pre- 
ferd, recievd, robd, signd, troubld, sneezd, struggld, traveld, 
worrid, wrongd; but not : bribd for bribed, cand for caned ; 
changd for changed, fild for filed, pried for priced, usd for 
used, etc. 

Note. The e is retaind only in cases where it has by con- 
vention a diacritic use, to indicate a preceding long vowel, or 
in the case of consonants, c sibilant or g pronounst j. 

ed final pronounst t. When the change wil not suggest a wrong 
pronunciation, spel t, reducing a preceding double to a single 
consonant, and changing ced, ssed, final, to st. Examples: 
askt, fixt, helpt, indorst, wisht; addrest, hist, past, shipt, stopt, 
stuft; advanst, announst, commenst, invoist, notist; acquiest, 
effervest; but not: bakt for baked, deduct or dedust for de- 
duced, fact or fast for faced, hopt for hoped, etc. (See note 
to preceding rule.) 

ei pronounst like ie in brief. Spel ie. Examples: conciet, deciev, 
inviegle, iether, reciev, wier, wierd. 

ey final unstrest pronounst like short y final. Drop silent e. Ex- 
amples: barly, chimny, donky, journy, mony, putty, trolly, 
vally, whisky. 

gh pronounst f. Spel f ; drop the silent letter of the preceding 
digraf. Examples: cof, draft, enuf, laf, ruf, tuf. 

gh pronounst like g in gas. Drop silent h. Examples: agast, 
gastly, gerkin, gost, goul. 



84 THE READING PROCESS 

gm final. Drop silent g. Examples: apothem, diafram, flem, 
paradim. 

gue final after a consonant, a short vowel, or a digraf representing 
a long vowel or a dif thong. Drop silent lie ; tongue spel tung. 
Examples: catalog, dialog, harang, leag, sinagog; but not: 
rog for rogue, vag for vague, etc. 

ise final pronounst as if speld ize. Spel ize. Examples : advertize, 
advize, apologize, enterprize, franchize, merchandize, rize, sur- 
prize, wize. 

mb final after a short vowel. Drop silent "b. Examples: horn, 
crum, dum, lam, lira, thum; but not : com for comb, tarn for 
tomb, etc. 

ou before 1, pronounst like o in bold. Drop silent u, except in 
soul. Examples: holder, mold, sholder. 

OUgh final. Spel o, u, ock, or up, when pronounst as if so speld; 
spel plow. Examples: altho, boro, donut, furlo, tho, thoro; 
thru; hock; hiccup. 

our final, with ou pronounst as a short (obscure) vowel. Drop u. 
Examples: color, favor, honor, labor. 

ph pronounst f . Spel f . Examples : alfabet, emfasis, fantom, fori- 
ograf, fotograf, sulfur, telefone, telegraf. 

re final after any consonant except c. Spel er. Examples : center, 
fiber, meter, theater; but not: lucer for lucre, mediocer for 
mediocre, etc. 

rh initial. Drop silent h. Examples: retoric, reumatism, rime, 
rom (rhomb), rubarb, rithm. 

sc initial pronounst as if speld s. Drop silent c. Examples: 
senery, sented, septer, sience, simitar, sissors; but : scatter, 
scooner, sconce, etc. 

U silent before a vowel medial. Drop u. Examples : bild, condit, 
garantee, gard, ges, gide, gild. 

y between consonants. Spel i, Examples: analisis, fisic, gipsy, 
paralize, rime, silvan, sithe, tipe. 



ENGLISH SPELLING 85 

Additional Simplified Spellings: aJcer, anser, burleslc, buro, 
campain, cedar, counterfit, delite, foren, forjit, frend, grotesk, 
Hand, ile, masherade, morgage, picturesk, reciet, siv, sorgum, sov- 
ren, spritely, tuch, yu, yung. 1 

Progress of the simplified spelling movement. — Once 
the Simplified Spelling Board was organized, the simpli- 
fication movement made rapid progress. The list of 300 
words was especially well received. It was promptly 
adopted for permanent use by such organizations as the 
public schools of New York City, the Modern Language 
Association of America, and the N. E. A. President 
Roosevelt adopted the list for his official correspondence 
and recommended that these simpler spellings be used by 
the Government Printing Office. State Teachers Associ- 
ations in all parts of the country indorsed the movement. 
"Leading periodicals and newspapers, including the Lit- 
erary Digest, Independent, Current Literature, Educa- 
tional Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Chicago 
Tribune, and Minneapolis Journal were prompt to ap- 
prove the work of the Board and to adopt some of its 
recommendations." Ten years later — 1916 — three hun- 
dred eighty universities, colleges, and normal schools 
were either using simplified spellings in their official pub- 
lications and correspondence or were permitting students 
to use them in their written work. One hundred seventy 
of these institutions including seventeen state universities 
had formally approved the movement for simplified spell- 
ing — in most cases by faculty resolution. Four hundred 
fifty newspapers and periodicals — circulating more than 
16,000,000 copies — were using most of the simpler spell- 

'See "Selected Keferences" (4). 



86 THE READING PROCESS 

ings recommended by the Board in its first list and more 
than four hundred had adopted the twelve words of the 
N. E. A. 

The Simplified Spelling Society of Great Britain. — 
The Simplified Spelling Society of Great Britain has like- 
wise been waging an aggressive campaign since its organi- 
zation in 1908. During the period of the war its activities 
were of necessity seriously curtailed, but with the coming 
of peace plans have been made for more elaborate efforts. 
The Society is fortunate in counting among its member- 
ship many of the Empire's most distinguished linguistic 
scholars, educators, and men of affairs. On the whole the 
Society goes somewhat farther in its recommendations 
than the Simplified Spelling Board. It has gone so far, 
for instance, as to adopt a phonetic scheme of notation — 
using, however, only the letters of the present English 
alphabet. An Imperial Education Conference attended 
by officially appointed delegates from all the provinces of 
the Empire— held in London in 1911 — strongly endorsed 
the efforts of the Society. Recently a petition was circu- 
lated asking for the appointment of an Imperial Com- 
mission to consider the question of spelling reform. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Collins, J. V. — "Language Reform and the Progress of English 

Peoples"; The Scientific Monthly, VI, 343-349. 

2. Lounsbury, Thos. R. — English Spelling and Spelling Reform; 

(New York and London), Harper and Brothers, 1909. 

The Problem before Us; Simplified Spelling Board, 

Circular No. 19. 
8. Matthews, Brander — "Spelling and Spelling Reform"; Mon- 
roe's Cyclopedia of Education, V, p. 391 ff. 



ENGLISH SPELLING 87 

— — The Spelling of Yesterday and the Spelling of Tomorrow; 
Simplified Spelling Board, Circular No. 4. 

-The Spelling of the Poets; Simplified Spelling Board, 



Circular No. 19. 

4. Simplified Spelling Board — Report of the Trustees; New York, 

1918. 
Handbook of Simplified Spelling; New York, 1919. 

5. Skeat, W. W. — The Problem of Spelling Reform; (London), 

Published for the British Academy by H. Froude. 

6. Sweet, Henry — Primer of Phonetics; (Oxford), 1890. 

7. Thomas, Calvin — The Amelioration of Our Spelling; Simplified 

Spelling Board, Circular No. 3. 

Simplified Spelling: A Letter to Teachers; Simplified 

Spelling Board, Circular No. 24. 



CHAPTER V 

TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 

Symbols and meanings. — Language, as has been re- 
peatedly pointed out, involves two main factors — sym- 
bols and meanings. Accordingly, in learning to read, a 
pupil must master the graphic symbols of his language 
and he must become familiar with their meanings — indi- 
vidually and in composition. Teaching beginners to 
read involves, therefore, two main processes — training in 
word mastery and training in thought getting. 

Form versus thought. — One of the first questions con- 
fronting the teacher of reading is: Which of these 
processes — word mastery or thought getting— should lead 
in a sound method of teaching beginners to read? His- 
torically, as we shall presently see, the emphasis was long 
placed on form or word mastery. The assumption was 
that a pupil must necessarily acquire general facility in 
word mastery before training in thought getting could 
be received advantageously. The older methods of 
teaching reading are, therefore, largely concerned with 
form. And, what is more, they are for the most part 
synthetic; that is, word mastery begins with drill on given 
elements — letters, phonograms, sounds — and thought get- 
ting is preceded by practice upon isolated word meanings. 
Logically — from the standpoint of the adult and subject 
matter — synthetic methods are quite consistent; but 

88 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 89 

psychologically — from the standpoint of the pupil and his 
interests — they are essentially inconsistent. 

For some time the pendulum has, therefore, been 
swinging in the opposite direction; so much so, in fact, 
that it is now generally conceded that reading should be 
a thought getting process from the very beginning. The 
newer methods of teaching beginning reading are, accord- 
ingly, for the most part analytic-synthetic; that is, they 
proceed from the whole to the part and back again to the 
whole. There is in evidence a strong tendency to begin 
with a story — well told — or with some familiar situation 
and thereupon to lead the pupil to discover sentences, 
phrases, words, phonic or phonetic elements, and in time 
even letters. As fast as elements are discovered analyt- 
ically the pupil is taught to combine them synthetically. 
Thus connected stories are built out of sentences, sen- 
tences out of words and phrases, and words out of pho- 
netic or phonic elements. Such a procedure — although 
not strictly logical from the adult point of view — is 
entirely in accord with the needs and interests of children. 

Steps in the evolution of modern methods of teaching 
beginning reading. — As indicated above, the earlier 
methods of teaching beginning reading emphasized form 
and were synthetic in procedure while those evolved more 
recently stress thought and proceed on an analytic-syn- 
thetic basis. Some six methods — the alphabet, the pho- 
netic, the word, the phrase, the sentence, and the story 
methods — are usually enumerated as representative of 
the steps leading to modern practices. The first three 
are largely concerned with word mastery and the last 
three with thought getting. 



90 THE READING PROCESS 

1. The alphabet method. — The alphabet method was 
in almost universal use among all nations having an 
alphabetic system of writing until well into the nine- 
teenth century. Among English-speaking peoples it was 
in common use up to about fifty years ago, and in some 
instances much longer. In some European countries — 
notably Germany — it was superseded by other methods 
somewhat earlier. At its best the method offered little 
to commend itself. It was a poor instrument for word 
mastery since it stressed the names rather than the sounds 
or functions of the letters. Also, it was extremely formal 
and almost wholly synthetic and so afforded little contact 
with the needs and interests of children. They began by 
memorizing the names of the letters. This was followed 
by prolonged drill upon the spelling and pronunciation 
of a great variety of letter combinations, syllables, and 
monosyllabic words. As time went on, the syllabic mate- 
rials thus acquired were combined into longer and longer 
words — always, of course, through added drill. That pro- 
nunciation was mastered at all was doubtless largely due 
to the fact that teachers indirectly stressed the sounds or 
functions of the letters. 

2. Phonetic methods. — Methods which approach word 
mastery through the sounds or functions of letters and 
groups of letters — variously known as phonetic or phonic 
methods' — did not come into common use in this country 
until about 1870. They had, however, long been advo- 
cated by educational leaders in various parts of the 
world and in isolated instances they had been used for 
centuries. During the earlier stages these methods were 
about as formal and synthetic as the alphabet method. 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO REAL 91 

They were to all intents and purposes spelling methods — 
only the words were spelled by the sounds rather than by 
the names of the letters. Such methods were obviously 
poorly suited to a language as unphonetic as the English. 
They were, therefore, modified in various ways as time 
went on. As long as the methods remained essentially 
on the spelling level — spelling by sounds, — the chief task 
was to find ways and means of designating the sounds 
graphically. It will be recalled that our alphabet repre- 
sents on an average little more than one character for 
every two sounds in the language and that our vowel 
characters are especially overtaxed — each one represent- 
ing on an average three or four sounds. 

In addition, many sounds in our language — particu- 
larly the vowel sounds — are represented by several dif- 
ferent characters or groups of characters. Then there are 
the silent letters. All these difficulties the early advocate 
of the phonetic methods encountered in full force. He 
dealt with them in various ways. In some cases he re- 
sorted to a scientific alphabet — an alphabet containing as 
many characters as there are elementary sounds in the 
language — so that the words to be mastered by the pupils 
were spelled phonetically. A more common practice, 
however, was to retain the present alphabet of twenty-six 
characters and the current spellings and to indicate the 
pronunciation of the words by means of a system of dia- 
critical marks such as that used in Webster's dictionary. 
These diacritical marks were not only used in connection 
with drills for word mastery but in connection with many 
of the words in the reading selections as well. While 
phonetic schemes of this kind are quite indispensable as 



92 THE READING PROCESS 

keys to pronunciation in connection with dictionaries — 
and pupils in the upper grades should become thoroughly 
familiar with them — they constitute obviously extremely 
cumbersome and artificial devices for teaching beginners 
to read, much more so fortunately than the exigencies of 
the situation demand. 

Progressive leaders in the teaching of primary reading 
were generally conscious of these defects. At the same 
time they also appreciated very thoroughly the advan- 
tages and possibilities of phonetic methods. They, ac- 
cordingly, set themselves the task of eliminating the 
evils as far as possible. In consequence the phonetic 
methods of to-day — and there are many — are much 
simpler and far more natural than their predecessors. 
Words are no longer uniformly resolved into all their 
elementary sounds. As far as possible they are rather 
analyzed into the larger and more natural sound units. 
Frequently — especially in the case of the consonants — 
these sounds represent simple letter functions. More 
often, however, they represent the functions of combina- 
tions of letters — most commonly combinations of vowels 
and consonants. These sound units occur again and 
again in our language and blend very readily in the for- 
mation of new words. We shall discuss them more fully 
later on. 

3. The word method. — The word method came into 
use in this country about the same time as the phonetic 
methods. Like the latter it had been advocated and used 
from time to time long before. In accordance with this 
method words are taught as wholes — the sound being 
associated with the total visual form as a unit. The 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 93 

Chinese — it will be recalled — must acquire all of his 
words in this manner. In actual practice the word method 
works admirably at first but as the stock of words in- 
creases it becomes less and less effective since it depends 
purely upon memory and develops in the pupil no inde- 
pendent power over word mastery. It is, therefore, — as 
far as word mastery is concerned — primarily an auxiliary 
method. As such it plays, of course, a very important 
part in modern methods of teaching beginning reading. 
It is especially serviceable in supplying the initial stock of 
words and in mastering later sight words. 

4. The phrase method. — The phrase method — like the 
sentence and the story methods — concerns itself with 
thought getting rather than word mastery. It represents 
primarily a point of departure. Its advocates contend 
that the phrase or the functionally related word group 
constitutes the natural speech unit and that the meanings 
of many words — especially prepositions and conjunctions 
— stand out only when they appear in composition. They 
hold, therefore, that the phrase rather than the word is 
the natural unit for presentation in teaching beginning 
reading. Such a method must obviously be supplemented 
with other methods for purposes of word mastery. 

5. The sentence method. — The sentence method came 
into general use in this country after 1885. It is based 
upon the assumption that the sentence rather than the 
phrase or the word is the unit of speech and thought and 
that it should, therefore, constitute the starting point in 
teaching beginning reading. As advocated by Farnham, 
who popularized the method in this country, it was rather 
formal — though distinctly a thought method. The sen- 



94 THE READING PROCESS 

tences which were used grew out of a conversation 
between teacher and pupils — the subject of the conversa- 
tion being unfortunately usually of little interest to the 
latter. The sentences which the teacher led the pupils to 
say were written on the blackboard. They were then 
repeated and rearranged in various ways until the pupils 
recognized them readily and were thoroughly conscious of 
the parts — the phrases and the words. In this way the 
pupils acquired in a rather incidental manner an initial 
vocabulary of sight words. As far as word mastery on a 
large scale is concerned this method represents obviously 
the same limitations as the word and phrase methods. It 
must, therefore, be supplemented by other methods. 

The sentence method — stripped of its one-time for- 
mality and unnaturalness — is used by many teachers as a 
point of departure. The sentences usually grow out of 
conversations which are of intrinsic interest to children 
and are recorded in their own language. 

6. The story method. — The story method — the most 
recent of reading methods — places the emphasis most 
completely upon the thought element. In fact it is the 
culmination of the movement which has given us succes- 
sively the phrase and the sentence methods; and like 
these it constitutes, therefore, essentially a point of de- 
parture rather than a complete method. It is based upon 
the assumption that the child's interest is centered in the 
story rather than in any of its component parts — the 
word, the phrase, or the sentence. To begin with the 
teacher tells an interesting story. This becomes the 
subject of conversation and not infrequently dramatiza- 
tion. Later it is reproduced by the pupils — the teacher 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 95 

writing or printing it on the blackboard as they proceed. 
In a comparatively short time the pupils are led through 
skillfully directed analysis and comparison to discover 
the parts — the sentences, phrases, and words. In this 
way they acquire very rapidly a considerable stock of 
sight words. Like all other thought methods the story 
method must be — and in actual practice is — supple- 
mented by some kind of phonetic method for purposes of 
word mastery. 

It remains to be pointed out that the so-called story 
method has many variations. Not infrequently the char- 
acterization or depiction of some familiar situation — one 
in which the child is interested and in connection with 
which he has had much experience — is substituted for the 
story. Sometimes the thought material which constitutes 
the point of departure comes by way of a song or a 
pleasing jingle. In any event — whatever the form or the 
content — the essence of the method appears in the fact 
that the teacher sets out with a reasonably complete 
thought unit — one of intrinsic interest to children — and 
proceeds thereafter in an analytic-synthetic manner. 

Modern methods of teaching beginning reading. — It 
is obvious from what has been said that modern methods 
of teaching beginning reading must be essentially com- 
posite. Almost without exception they represent ele- 
ments drawn from every step or method which we have 
enumerated. The best of these methods are invariably 
thought methods. They set out with a fairly complete 
and interesting thought unit — a story, a characterization 
of some familiar situation, a song, or a jingle. The pro- 
cedure is distinctly analytic-synthetic. The pupils first 



96 THE READING PROCESS 

grasp and appreciate the whole. Then they become con- 
scious of the parts — the sentences, phrases, and words — 
while these are being rearranged in various ways. Finally 
they are led to combine the parts into new wholes. In 
this way pupils not only accumulate — in a more or less 
incidental manner — an initial vocabulary but they ac- 
quire a genuine interest in reading. 

If the initial vocabulary has been wisely chosen by the 
teacher, it will constitute an excellent point of departure 
for the phonetic work which must of necessity come in 
at this point in some form in any effective method of 
teaching beginning reading. That is, some of the words 
of this vocabulary will be of the kind which readily re- 
solve themselves into natural sound units. Pupils are 
led to discover these sound units much as they discovered 
the sentences, phrases, and words of the larger thought 
units. As fast as they become conscious of the sound 
units they are led to combine or blend them into word 
wholes much as they combined the words, phrases, and 
sentences into new thought units. The two processesr— 
thought getting and word mastery — are of course very 
different but they are governed by the same general 
principle — the procedure being in each case analytic- 
synthetic. If properly directed in their phonetic work 
pupils acquire in a comparatively short time the ability 
to master independently the great majority of the new 
words which they encounter in connection with their 
reading. This adds of course greatly to the pleasure of 
reading. If the phonetic work is neglected — as sometimes 
happens — pupils are compelled to acquire new words in 
a, purely haphazard fashion and to retain them by sheer 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 97 

force of memory. That such a procedure will seriously 
interfere with the pleasure and the effectiveness of read- 
ing is obvious. 

An examination of current methods or systems of 
teaching beginning reading shows a tremendous variation 
in the emphasis given to phonetic work. On the one 
extreme there are the methods which represent highly 
elaborate phonetic schemes. For the most part these 
have been developed by teachers who have a thorough- 
going understanding of the English language and who 
appreciate the problem of word mastery in the technical 
sense. Unfortunately they do not always have as com- 
plete an understanding and appreciation of child nature 
and of the learning process. In consequence such meth- 
ods are often extremely formal and logical from the 
standpoint of the primary pupil. They compel him — far 
in advance of any apparent need — to memorize a vast 
array of phonograms and to combine them into innu- 
merable words many of which he may never have occa- 
sion to use. That such methods develop word mastery — 
provided the teachers are prepared to use them — is not 
to be denied for a moment. Indeed, they do it and in a 
very effective manner. The only difficulty is that they 
force upon the child an unnecessary burden and an arti- 
ficial regimen which tend to make the teaching of pho- 
netics for the time being an end rather than a means. 

On the other extreme there are the methods which have 
practically discarded all direct teaching of phonetics. In 
part — indeed, in no inconsiderable part — these have 
arisen in protest to the formalism of the methods on the 
other extreme. Not infrequently such methods have 



98 THE READING PROCESS 

been developed and are being promoted by teachers 
whose appreciation of child nature far exceeds their 
understanding of the English language. In many cases 
they are enthusiastic and fairly successful teachers of 
primary reading — enthusiastic because they understand 
and appreciate child nature and fairly successful because 
they have at their command a considerable phonetic 
equipment which they use more or less indirectly and 
unconsciously. The weakness of such methods becomes 
most obvious when they fall into the hands of teachers 
who have little or no phonetic equipment and so are com- 
pelled to carry them to their logical conclusion. In such 
cases pupils must of course acquire new words by the 
word method — one by one as separate and distinct enti- 
ties—at least until they learn to spell. Thereafter they 
will in the very nature of the case resort to the alphabet 
method — the sounds or functions of the letters coming to 
their aid indirectly. 

Fortunately — although the extremes represent no in- 
considerable following — the majority of modern methods 
of teaching word mastery falls somewhere between these 
two extremes and approximates, therefore, a more whole- 
some procedure. Most of the leaders in primary educa- 
tion understand and appreciate children too well to sub- 
scribe to methods which are unnecessarily formal and 
artificial, and they have too keen an understanding and 
too thoroughgoing an appreciation of the function of in- 
telligence to condemn the child to approach word mas- 
tery on a purely trial and error basis. With all this the 
situation is far from satisfactory. Recent surveys of 
reading achievements have shown quite conclusively that 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 99 

many children do not master the mechanics of reading in 
the primary grades — the situation being of course much 
more serious in some communities than in others. In 
consequence they are in the very nature of the case 
seriously handicapped in connection with much of the 
work which they are expected to do during the succeed- 
ing period. In some cases this condition is clearly due to 
insufficient phonetic work; in others, possibly in the 
great majority of cases, it is obviously the outcome of too 
much diversity in phonetic procedure — one teacher using 
one method and another another. As a matter of fact 
the bearings of such diversity are about as serious as 
those of neglect. Phonetic methods — although each 
may be relatively proficient in itself — differ too widely 
to be used indiscriminately in school systems where 
pupils change teachers several times while learning to 
read. There is, therefore, without question room for 
much improvement in the teaching of phonetics; not 
only do we need more phonetic work in many instances 
but there is urgent need above all for greater uniformity 
in the phonetic methods used in given communities- 
cities, counties, and states. 

The basis of phonetics. — In the last chapter we dis- 
cussed at length the unphonetic character of our spelling. 
It was pointed out that there are many more sounds in 
our language than letters in our alphabet — there being 
approximately forty-four sounds and really only twenty- 
three letters since three of the twenty-six have no inde- 
pendent functions. The vowel situation was shown to be 
more serious than that of the consonants since there are 
from fifteen to eighteen vowel sounds and only five vowel 



100 THE READING PROCESS 

characters. This means of course that any one letter 
must serve as a symbol for several different sounds — 
sometimes for as many as eight sounds as in the case of 
the letter a, We found that the situation is further com- 
plicated by the fact that a sound is not infrequently repre- 
sented by several characters or groups of characters — the 
a in care, for instance, being represented by ai in hair, ay 
in prayer, e in there, and ei in their. 

Then there are the silent letters. If it were not for 
these irregularities, the problem of phonetics— and con- 
sequently the problem of teaching word mastery — would 
be a comparatively simple one as is actually the case in 
such countries as Spain and Italy. There would be one 
letter for each sound of the language, and each sound 
would be represented by only one letter. In such a situa- 
tion the teacher's task would be limited very largely to 
training children in uttering and blending the sounds. 
There could be no associative difficulties since the sounds 
of the letters would be about as invariable as their names. 
As it is, however, the task of the English-speaking teacher 
is much more complicated. Not only must she train 
children in uttering and blending a greater variety of 
sounds than the Spanish or the Italian teacher but she 
must deal with a rather involved associative problem. In 
fact, she must teach children the sounds of our language 
and the phonograms — the letters and combinations of 
letters which represent them under given conditions. 

Fortunately the phonetic problem of the English- 
speaking teacher is not as impossible as might appear on 
the surface. Once she has mastered the forty-four sounds 
of the language and the phonograms which represent 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 101 

them under given conditions, she finds to her great sur- 
prise that the vast majority of the syllables of the lan- 
guage — the monosyllabic words and the syllables entering 
into the polysyllabic words — are phonetic, in the sense 
that the relationship of the letters tends to indicate the 
correct pronunciation. As Burbank points out: 

Can is phonetic because each letter has its usual sound; cane is 
phonetic because the final e shows that a is long; car is phonetic 
because r shows that a has the so-called Italian sound; call is 
phonetic because the 11 shows that a has the sound of au in haul, 
or aw in law or bawl, which is the same as 6 in com; rage is 
phonetic because the final e shows that a is long and g soft. 1 

When the relationship of the letters does not indicate 
the pronunciation — or is misleading — the syllables are 
unphonetic as in the case of done, have, give, whose, 
does, says. Burbank, who has made an exhaustive study 
of phonetics from the standpoint of the teacher of read- 
ing, points out that fully 86 per cent of English mono- 
syllables are phonetic in the sense indicated above. An 
analysis of the 2398 words of the Jones list — selected 
from the reading vocabulary of children of the first three 
grades and comprising a total of 3405 syllables — showed 
that monosyllables tend to be phonetic in about the same 
ratio, the percentages being almost identically the same. 
It is here — in the tendency on the part of English sylla- 
bles to conform to phonetic principles — that we find the 
basis for phonetic work in connection with the teaching 
of word mastery. Because of this phonetic consistency 

1 Burbank, E. D.r "Phonetics in the Elementary Grades for 
Teachers of Normal Children." The Volta Review, Vol. XXII, 
No. 3, p. 3. 



102 THE READING PROCESS 

which governs the words of our language in spite of their 
irregular spelling, children may in a comparatively short 
time — on the basis of certain facts and a given amount 
of consistent training — arrive at the point where they are 
able to master independently the vast majority of the 
new words which they encounter in connection with their 
reading. The unphonetic words — constituting less than 
14 per cent — must of course be mastered as sight words. 

Phonetic facts and principles. — The teacher who is to 
direct children in word mastery should in the very nature 
of the case be well versed in the field of phonetics. This 
constitutes part of her indispensable equipment and so 
should feature prominently in her training. Without 
going into detail we shall enumerate at this point some 
of the most important facts and principles — the elemen- 
tary sounds of the language, the phonograms which rep- 
resent these, and the phonetic principles which govern 
them — with which the teacher should be familiar: 

1. The elementary sounds. — While the number of ele- 
mentary sounds in the English language has been vari- 
ously estimated — the estimates varying all the way from 
thirty-eight to forty-four or more — the following list of 
forty-four sounds, which consists of nineteen vowels and 
twenty-five consonants, has been generally accepted : 

Vowels — a (mat), a (mate), a (fast), a (car), a (care), 
e (met), e (mete), i (pin), i (pine), o (not), o (note), 
o (for), u (cut), u (cute), u (hurl), oo (room), oo (book), 
oi (oil), ou (out); 

Consonants — b (bee), p (peep), m (may), w (we), 
wh (why), v (view), f (few), th (then), th (thin), d (do), 
t (ten), 1 (little), n (no), r (ray), z (zeal), s (so), j (joke), 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 103 

ch (chin), zh (azure, fusion), sh (she), y (yet), g (gar- 
den), k (kill), ng (singer), h (hide). 

2. Phonograms. — The forty-four elementary sounds 
enumerated above are represented by the following pho- 
nograms : 

Vowels — a, e, i, o, u, and w and y as end equivalents 
for u and i. In the earlier phonetic methods — as indi- 
cated elsewhere — the vowel phonograms were not infre- 
quently modified, either by a change in the form of the 
letter or by the addition of so-called diacritical marks, in 
order that the different sounds might be indicated di- 
rectly. At present these devices are rarely used. The 
short sounds of the vowels, which are by far the most 
numerous, are considered basic and are taught first — all 
other sounds being readily recognized through position. 

Vowel digraphs — oo, au, aw, ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, oa, oe, ow, 
ue, ew. With the exception of oo which represents the 
long and short vowel sounds in such words as room and 
book and au and aw which are used as equivalents for o 
in corn and for, the vowel digraphs are generally used as 
long vowel equivalents — the first letter having its usual 
long sound and the second being silent. 

Diphthongs — oi, oy, ou, ow. These are made by the 
union of two vowels. 

Consonants — b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, 1, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, 
w, x, y, z. 

Consonant digraphs — sh, ch, tch, ck, ng, nk, th, wh. 

3. Phonetic principles. — Burbank gives the following 
summary of the more important phonetic principles: 1 

1 Burbank, E. D.: "Phonetics in the Elementary Grades for Teach- 
ers of Normal Children." The Volta Review, Vol. XXII, No. 5. 



104 THE READING PROCESS 

I. Vowels are short except when modified by position: up, 
cot, cut, sat, scratch, notch, fetch, flung, with. 

II. Final e lengthens the preceding vowel: cube, plate, tube, 
shade, rose, size, glade, robe, mete. 

III. In most vowel digraphs the first vowel has its own long 
sound and the second vowel is silent: heap, rail, slay, roar, tie, 
hue, sleep, plea, hoe, own. 

IV. Vowels followed by r have their sounds modified, making 
the murmur diphthongs: stir, mar, clerk, churn, jerk, cur, dirt, 
her, sir, corn. 

V. There are four diphthongs made by the union of two 
vowels in each case: oi (oil), oy (boy), ou (out), ow (cow). 

VI. The c is soft before e, i, and y; otherwise it is hard. The 
g is generally soft before e, i, and y; otherwise it is hard : ice, city, 
fleecy, can, cut, cot, gem, gin, gipsy, got, gun, gang. 

VII. In open accented syllables the vowel is usually long: no- 
ta-tion, na-tion, di-ner, fry, so, ca-liph, me. 

VIII. The a before I usually has the same sound as au in haul or 
aw in law: all, ball, bald, malt, talk. 

IX. Long u and its equivalents have the sound of oo after r, 
j, and I preceded by a consonant, and after the sound of sh: rule, 
grew, June, jute, flute, flew, blue, sure, chute. 

X. The o after w usually has the sound of u : work, won, wont, 
word, worst, worth, worry, wonder, worship. 

XI. The a after w or wh, or its equivalent, usually has the 
sound of o : was, wash, what, squat, squad, warm, war, quart. 

XII. Silent letters: h before n: knee, knife, knit, know, knave; 
w before r: wrap, write, wreath, wrist, wretch; and in who, whom, 
whose, whoop, sword, answer; gh after a vowel: flight, sigh, 
straight, height, caught, through, plough, daughter, laugh; o after 
m or before t: climb, dumb, lamb, thumb, debt, doubt, subtle; t 
as in often, castle, hasten, listen, whistle; g before m and n final 
and initial before n : phlegm, sign, feign, reign, gnat, gnaw, gnash ; 
I as in could, would, calm, palm, salmon, almond, talk, walk, calf, 
half, folk. 

The blend. — Sounds may be combined in various ways 
to form larger wholes. This has given rise to two quite 
distinct types of phonetic methods. In accordance with 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 105 

the first of these, vowel sounds are blended with final 
consonant sounds to form what are commonly known as 
simple word endings or family names — the more difficult 
of these being usually taught as sight phonograms. 
Thereupon initial consonant sounds are combined with 
these word endings to form monosyllabic words. Thus 
the sounds s, f, h, t, p, n, m, r, a, and i — once pupils have 
become familiar with them — may be blended into such 
word endings as an, at, am, ap, in, it, im, and ip. This 
done, a union may be effected between these word end- 
ings and initial consonant sounds — giving such words as 
j-an, t-an, p-an, m-an, r-an, s-at, f-at, h-at, p-at, m-at, 
r-at, h-am, r-am, s-ap, t-ap, n-ap, m-ap, r-ap, s-in, f-in, 
t-in, p-in, s-it, f-it, h-it, p-it, h-im, r-im, s-ip, h-ip, t-ip, 
n-ip, and r-ip. In the case of methods of the second type, 
the initial consonant sounds are blended with the sounds 
of the vowels following to form the so-called helpers. 
These helpers in turn are combined with the sounds of 
the final consonants to form monosyllabic words. Thus 
the sounds s, f, h, t, p, n, m, r, a, and i may be blended 
into such helpers as sa, fa, ha, ta, pa, na, ma, ra, si, fi, hi, 
ti, pi, ni, mi, and ri. Thereupon the helpers may be com- 
bined with the sounds of the final consonants to form 
monosyllabic words as follows: sa-t, sa-p, fa-t, fa-n, has, 
ha-t, ha-m, ta-p, ta-n, pa-t, pa-n, na-p, ma-t, ma-p, ma-n, 
ra-t, ra-p, ra-n, ra-m, si-t, si-p, si-n, fi-t, fi-n, hi-t, hi-p, 
hi-m, ti-p, ti-n, pi-n, pi-t, ni-p, ri-p, and ri-m. Both 
methods lead pupils to blend consonant sounds which 
usually go together — st, fl, br, gl, sk, sc, scr, cr, sm, pr, bl, 
fr, si, sp, cl, tr, gr, pi, sn, sw, dr, str, tw, tch, for example — 
and to use them as units in blending words. 



106 THE READING PROCESS 

Phonetic methods of the first type have long been in 
use and are the most numerous to-day. Methods of the 
second type are comparatively recent and represent a 
more radical departure from the former than might ap- 
pear at first sight. Those who advocate the latter contend 
that it is easier and more natural to blend the initial 
consonant with the vowel following than to blend the 
vowel with the final consonant. In support of this they 
point out that we use do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do in sing- 
ing to represent the various notes of the scale; that the 
first consonant sounds of children are blended with vow- 
els following; that the syllables of early languages — as 
shown by the Japanese syllabary, for example — generally 
conformed to this principle; and, finally, that we our- 
selves tend to conform in our speech — the written syllabi- 
fication of such words as hunter, render, and satisfac 
tion becoming hurt ter, ren der, and sa tis fac Hon. Those 
who have used these methods extensively contend that 
they make the least possible demands upon children — 
only from sixty to seventy phonograms being required 
for the mastery of the 86 per cent of phonetic words in 
our language — and, furthermore, that they require a min- 
imum of technical preparation on the part of the teacher. 
While excellent results are constantly being achieved 
through both types of methods, the relative merits of the 
two have not been determined experimentally as far as 
the writer knows. Such an evaluation would be distinctly 
worth while. 



TEACHING BEGINNERS TO READ 107 



SELECTED REFERENCES * 

1. Burbank, E. D. — "Phonetics in the Elementary Grades for 

Teachers of Normal Children"; The Volta Review, XXII, 
Numbers 3, 5, and 6, March, May, and June, 1920. 

2. Huey, E. B. — Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1908. 

3. Klapper, Paul — Teaching Children to Read; D. Appleton and 

Company, 1914. 

4. Sweet, Henry — Primer of Phonetics; (Oxford), Clarenden 

Press, 1890. 
Sounds of English; (Oxford), Clarenden Press, 1908. 

1 Among the indispensable references of the student of phonetics 
and methods of teaching beginners to read are of course the many 
excellent Teachers' Manuals — too numerous to mention here — which 
accompany the different series of readers. 



CHAPTER VI 

ANALYSIS OF THE READING PROCESS THROUGH AN 
INVESTIGATION OF EYE MOVEMENT 

As will appear in succeeding chapters, various methods 
have been used in the scientific study of the reading 
process. One of the most interesting of these methods 
has approached the problem through an investigation of 
the manner in which the eyes move during the reading 
act. Contrary to popular opinion, the passage of the 
eyes across the page is not continuous. It consists rather 
of a series of movements and stops — the former being 
commonly designated as interfixation movements and the 
latter as fixation pauses. Upon reaching the end of a 
given line the eye returns — by means of the return sweep 
— to the beginning of the next. The intensive study of 
these movements and pauses — especially the pauses — 
has thrown much light upon the nature of the reading 
process. 

Methods employed in the investigation of eye move- 
ment. — A considerable period of time was required for 
the development of the methods and apparatus now 
commonly used for the investigation of eye movement. 
Professor Javal x of the University of Paris, who as early 
as 1879 called attention to the discontinuous character of 
the movement of the eye across the page from left to 

'See "Selected References" (9). 

108 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 109 

right, studied the eye movements of his subjects by 
means of a mirror. This was adjusted in such a manner 
that it reflected the images of the reader's eyes without 
obstructing his field of vision. In this way Professor 
Javal was able to observe the eye movements of his 
subjects during the act of reading. Although used ex- 
tensively by later investigators — notably Erdmann and 
Dodge at the University of Halle — the possibilities of 
this method were extremely limited since it did not ena- 
ble the experimenter to measure in an accurate manner 
the various aspects of eye movement, such as the number 
and the duration of the pauses and the speed of the inter- 
fixation movements and the return sweep. The best that 
he could do was to estimate roughly the number of pauses 
which the reader required on an average for the reading 
of a given line. The microphone method — improvised by 
Lamare * — represented the same limitations. In this case 
a microphone was fastened to the upper eyelids of the 
reader. This device magnified the sounds made by the 
movements of the eyes and thus enabled the experimenter 
to estimate in a general way the number of pauses which 
the eyes made as line after line was being read. 

Ahrens 2 — while investigating eye movement as related 
to handwriting at the University of Rostock in 1891 — hit 
upon a device which led to the development of a more ob- 
jective method. He succeeded in fastening an ivory cup 
to the cornea of the eye. By^means of a pointer fastened 
to this cup he hoped to record on a smoked surface 
tracings of the movements of the eyes. Although he se- 

*See "Selected References" (11). 
a See "Selected References" (1). 



110 THE READING PROCESS 

cured no practical results, the attempt was suggestive. 
Some years later (1897-1899) Delabarre 1 working in the 
psychological laboratory at Harvard University, used a 
plaster of Paris cup much in the same manner but with- 
out positive results. In the course of the same year, how- 
ever, Huey 2 succeeded at Clark University — partly at the 
suggestion of Delabarre — in perfecting a similar appara- 
tus which proved to be very serviceable. In fact the 
elaborate investigations of reading which Huey undertook 
subsequently were carried on largely by means of this 
new apparatus. The plaster of Paris cup was constructed 
and fastened to the cornea in such a manner that the 
pupil was left unobstructed. The mechanism of the levers 
which were fastened to the cup was such that the move- 
ments and pauses of the eye were recorded upon a smoked 
surface and so could be studied after the reading was 
over. Although far superior to previous modes of ap- 
proach, this method, too, had its limitations. The dura- 
tion of the pauses and the speed of the interfixation move- 
ments and the return sweep could not be measured with 
anything like final accuracy. Furthermore, the eye 
worked under more or less unnatural conditions because 
of the mechanical attachment. Finally, the apparatus 
was too difficult to use, and the penalties of carelessness 
were so great that the method has never come into 
general favor. 

Meanwhile Dodge 3 was devising a new apparatus at 
Wesleyan University. He was convinced that photog- 
raphy must ultimately offer the most satisfactory mode 

*See "Selected References" (3). 'See "Selected References" (5). 

2 See "Selected References" (8). 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 111 

of approach. This would furnish the experimenter with 
a recording medium — reflected light — having no momen- 
tum and no inertia and one which would subject the eyes 
to no unusual conditions. He finally hit upon the plan of 
photographing the point of a bright pencil of light which 
was reflected from the cornea of the reader's eye and 
focused upon a photographic plate by means of a lens 
and caraera. The light which was thrown upon the read- 
er's eye from a small mirror was highly actinic and of 
low physiological intensity so that it did not in any way 
interfere with vision. The pencil of light reflected from 
the cornea behaved exactly like the eye — being now in 
motion and now at rest. Movements other than those of 
the eyes were excluded as far as possible by fastening the 
head in a carefully devised head rest. In order to get a 
simple and continuous record of the movements and 
pauses of the eyes — as represented by the movements 
and pauses of the pencil of light — it was necessary that 
the photographic plate move continuously and uniformly 
in one direction — downward in this case. Only in this way 
could the records of the successive pauses, interfixation 
movements, and return sweeps be spacially represented 
and distinguished from each other. When the photo- 
graphic plate moved downward — as indicated above — the 
pauses were represented on the records — Plate II — by ap- 
proximately vertical lines — the length of the lines indi- 
cating in a general way the duration of the pauses; the 
interfixation movements were represented by slightly 
diagonal lines to the right; and the return sweep by a 
longer and more diagonal line running in the opposite 
direction. The apparatus was also provided with an elec- 








Plate II 


Eye-movement Records 


0. 


Oral 




11 




X. 


Interfixation 


s. 


Silent 




2 


„ Successive 




movement 


L. 


Left eye 


3 


lines 


y. 


Return sweep 


R. 


Right 


eye 


4j 


112 


z. 


Refixation 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 113 

trie time marker which intercepted the pencil of light at 
regular intervals — say fifty times per second. This device 
was of great value since it made possible the accurate 
measurement of the duration of the pauses and the speed 
of the interfixation movements and the return sweep — 
these being indicated by the number of interceptions in 
the lines representing them. 

Although Dodge originated the apparatus described 
above, he did not use it extensively for the investigation 
of reading as such. Dearborn 1 — working at Columbia 
University during the school year 1904-05 — was the first 
to use the apparatus on a large scale for this purpose. 
More recently the laboratory of the School of Education 
of the University of Chicago has been the scene of several 
elaborate investigations. During the school year 1913-14 
Schmidt 2 investigated the eye movements of eighty-three 
individuals — twenty-one elementary pupils, seventeen 
high school students, and forty-five adults — for both oral 
and silent reading — the investigation being carried on by 
means of a modification of the Dodge photographic appa- 
ratus. Two years later C. T. Gray 3 completed an elab- 
orate study — carried on in part by means of a further 
modification of the Dodge photographic apparatus — 
which concerned itself with the reading ability of chil- 
dren. These studies 4 together with minor ones have 
brought to light many important facts regarding the 

"See "Selected References" (2). 
2 See "Selected References" (12). 
8 See "Selected References" (7). 

4 BusweH's investigation — An Experimental Study of the Eye-Voice 
Span in Reading — was completed after this chapter had been written. 



114 THE READING PROCESS 

nature of the reading process. Some of these we shall 
discuss in the remaining sections of this chapter. 

Character of interfixation movements and return 
sweep. — It has been conclusively established through a 
long chain of investigations that the eye can receive no 
distinct visual impressions during the time that it passes 
from one fixation point to another. Interfixation move- 
ments exist, therefore, largely for the purpose of carrying 
the eye from fixation point to fixation point. Their dura- 
tion is short — usually from 0.01 to 0.03 second. In the 
case of a given individual the differences in the durations 
of these movements are largely due to the fact that the 
eye must traverse varying distances in passing from one 
fixation point to another. In some cases the distances 
are three and four times as great as in others. Then 
there is of course marked individual variation — the move- 
ments of some being uniformly slow and those of others 
uniformly rapid. The durations of the return sweeps are 
— as might be expected on account of the greater dis- 
tances traversed — materially longer than those of the 
interfixation movements, extending ordinarily f rom OJTto 
0.05 second. Both the return sweep and the interfixa- 
tion movements are accompanied by a divergent binocu- 
lar adjustment — the eyes moving gradually downward 
and outward in the course of any one movement. 

The fixation pause. — All but an insignificant fraction 
of the time in reading is spent in pauses. It is during 
these periods — periods of apparent rest on the part of the 
eye — that distinct visual impressions are received from 
the printed page. The pauses constitute, therefore, the 
period of perception par excellence — though it must be 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 115 

borne in mind always that perception and assimilation as 
such are continuous processes which proceed essentially 
uninterrupted by movements and pauses. Because of 
their prominence and objectivity the pauses have been 
the chief concern of the investigator — having been stud- 
ied especially from the standpoint of their nature, num- 
ber per line, duration, and location within the unit of 
perception — be this the word, the phrase, or the larger 
whole. 

Although the pause appears to be a period of rest, the 
eye is probably never absolutely at rest. This is rather in 
accordance with expectation since perception is so domi- 
nantly motor in character. One of the most interesting 
and significant forms of motor activity observed in con- 
nection with the fixation pause is a convergent binocular 
adjustment during which the eyes move slowly upward 
and inward. This is of course the counterpart of the 
divergent binocular adjustment accompanying the inter- 
fixation movements and the return sweep. 

The average number of pauses per line. — The number 
of pauses which an individual requires in reading a given 
line is obviously one of the most important factors in 
determining his rate of reading. In general the larger 
the number of pauses the slower the rate and vice versa. 
There are, however, frequent exceptions since the dura- 
tion of the pauses also enters in as a determining factor. 
Detailed quantitative information regarding the number 
of pauses is comparatively recent since most of the earlier 
investigations were based upon a very limited number of 
individuals. Javal inferred on the basis of his mirror 
observations that there was uniformly one pause to every 



116 THE READING PROCESS 

ten letters — about 5 pauses to a 90-mm. line. Dodge 
himself averaged 5 pauses in the case of an 83-mm. line 
and Erdmann 8 with lines as long as 122 mm. Two of 
Huey's subjects averaged 4.5 and 4.8 pauses respectively 
with lines 83 mm. in length ; in the case of 52-mm. lines 
one reader averaged 3.4 and the other 3.8 pauses. Dear- 
born's readers averaged from 3 to 7.1 pauses with ordinary 
newspaper lines — an average of from 1.9 to 1.0 word per 
pause; with lines not quite double this length from 7.5 to 
9.4 pauses were required — an average of from 1.5 to 1.1 
words per fixation. In general the results of Dearborn's 
investigation — the first to deal with a considerable num- 
ber of individuals — gave indication of marked individual 
variation. The Chicago studies which are based upon 
larger numbers of subjects show even more striking varia- 
tions. Schmidt's adult subjects — 45 in number — ranged 
from 4.7 to 10.8 pauses in reading 90-mm. lines silently — 
the average being 6.5 pauses. In oral reading the range 
extended from 6.5 to 11.3 pauses per line — the average 
being 8.2 pauses. The high school students- — 17 in num- 
ber — ranged from 5.0 to 9.6 pauses in reading similar 
materials silently — the average being 7.0. In oral reading 
the range extended from 7.2 to 10.2 pauses — the average 
being 8.6. The elementary pupils — 21 in number — ranged 
from 4.1 to 9.3 pauses in reading 90-mm. lines silently — 
the average being 6.3. In oral reading the range extended 
from 6.1 to 11.5 pauses — the average being 8.1. In other 
words, the adults read from 0.93 to 2.15 words per pause 
silently and from 0.87 to 1.52 words per pause orally — 
averaging 1.54 words per pause silently and 1.22 words 
per pause orally; the high school students read from 1.04 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 117 

to 2.04 words per pause silently and from 0.98 to 1.39 
words per pause orally — averaging 1.43 words per pause 
silently and 1.16 words per pause orally; and the elemen- 
tary pupils read from 1.04 to 2.44 words per pause 
silently and from 0.86 to 1.62 words per pause orally — 
averaging 1.59 words per pause silently and 1.23 words 
per pause orally. 1 

The duration of the pauses. — Aside from the possible 
exception of their number, the duration of the pauses is 
the most important factor in determining the rate of 
reading. In general, the shorter the pauses, the more 
rapid the rate of reading and vice versa. Since the meas- 
urement of the duration of the pauses requires a rather 
highly developed technique — much more so than the 
measurement of their number, — the data on duration are 
rather recent. Even Huey's technique gave only approxi- 
mates. Dearborn was the first to secure extensive data. 
In reading an ordinary newspaper passage the average 
duration of the pauses of five of his subjects ranged from 
.160 to .401 second. It should be borne in mind at this 
point that there is a rather well defined limit — deter- 
mined in part by the reaction time of the eye — below 
which the duration of pauses cannot be expected to fall. 
Dodge quotes visual reaction time averages ranging from 
.151 to .181 second. Compared with these the lower 
limit of Dearborn's range is rather exceptional. Schmidt's 
adult subjects ranged in the case of silent reading from 
.214 to .470 second — the average being .308; in oral 
reading the same subjects ranged from .230 to .520 sec- 
ond — the average being .380 second. The high school 

1 An Experimental Study in the Psychology of Reading, pp. 39-41, 



118 THE READING PROCESS 

students ranged in the case of the silent reading from .244 
to .414 second — the average being .311; in oral reading 
they ranged from .306 to .512 second — the average being 
.372 second. The elementary pupils ranged in the case 
of the silent reading from .264 to .438 second — the aver- 
age being .314; in oral reading they ranged from .300 to 
.524 second — the average being .398 second. 1 

C. T. Gray's results show somewhat lower durations — 
the averages for the silent reading of some 45 individuals 
ranging from .174 to .364 second. 2 Much depends doubt- 
less upon the rate at which individuals in connection 
with a given investigation are told to read — the more 
rapid the rate, the shorter the durations tend to be. Prob- 
ably the most striking fact -brought out by the several 
investigations is the tremendous individual variation — 
the pauses of some being more than three times as long 
as those of others. 

Perception time. — The perception time in the case of 
a given unit of reading material — such as a line or a 
paragraph — is obviously the product of the average num- 
ber and the average duration of^the pauses required in 
reading it. It is essentially the reading time minus the 
time expended in interfixation movements and return 
sweep. Since the duration of the latter is short and rela- 
tively constant, the perception time furnishes on the 
whole an excellent index to the rate of reading. Indeed, 
the perception time averages and ranges obtained through 
the study of eye movement are in striking agreement 
with the reading time averages and ranges which have 

1 An Experimental Study in the Psychology of Reading, pp. 39-41. 
* Types of Reading Ability, pp. 92-93. 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 119 

been secured through other modes of investigation. The 
perception time averages of Schmidt's adult subjects — 
expressed in terms of the number of seconds expended in 
connection with the fixation pauses of 90-mm. lines — 
ranged from 1.14 to 3.68 seconds for silent reading — the 
average being 2.01; for oral reading the range extended 
from 1.70 to 4.06 seconds — the average being 3.13 sec- 
onds. The perception time averages of the high school 
students ranged from 1.37 to 3.36 seconds for silent read- 
ing — the average being 2.23; for oral reading the range 
extended from 2.36 to 4.17 — the average being 3.20 sec- 
onds. In the case of the elementary pupils the percep- 
tion time averages ranged from 1.19 to 2.96 seconds for 
silent reading — the average being 1.97; for oral reading 
the range extended from 2.21 to 4.45 seconds — the aver- 
age being 3.23 seconds. In other words, the adult sub- 
jects perceived from 2.7 to 8.7 words per second when 
reading silently — 4.9 words on an average — and from 2.9 
to 5.9 words per second when reading orally — 3.2 words 
on an average; the high school students perceived from 
3.0 to 7.3 words per second when reading silently — 4.5 
words on an average — and from 2.4 to 4.2 words per sec- 
ond when reading orally — 3.1 words on an average; and 
the elementary pupils perceived from 3.3 to 8.5 words 
per second when reading silently — 5.1 words on an aver- 
age — and from 2.2 to 4.5 words per second when reading 
orally — 3.1 words on an average. 1 The amount perceived 
by different individuals during a given unit of time — a 
second in this case — is obviously extremely variable — 
some perceiving more than three times as much as others. 

1 An Experimental Study in the Psychology of Reading, pp. 39-40. 



120 THE READING PROCESS 

The variation is of course most marked in the case of 
silent reading. 

The fact that reading rate is largely determined by the 
number and the duration of the pauses raises the ques- 
tion: Which of these factors — the number or the dura- 
tion — is more influential in determining reading rate? 
Such correlations as have been computed between these 
factors and perception time indicate that the number of 
the pauses is the more influential of the two — the correla- 
tion between the average number of pauses and the 
average perception time per line being almost invariably 
materially higher than that between the average duration 
of the pauses and the average perception timer - As a rule 
then, the individual who requires few pauses is more apt 
to be a rapid reader than the one who uses short pauses. 
But there are exceptions. Some individuals who require 
a relatively large number of pauses use such short pauses 
that they are able to read more rapidly than those who 
require a small number of relatively long pauses. 

Since the reading rate of an individual may ordinarily 
be materially improved through practice, the question 
arises: Which of these two factors — the number or the 
duration of the pauses — yields most to training? In 
general, experimental evidence shows that improvement 
in the rate of reading is, during the early practice stages, 
accompanied by a reduction in the duration of the pauses. 
However — as indicated earlier — the possibilities for such 
a reduction are decidedly limited since the lower limits of 
the duration of pauses are rather arbitrarily determined 
by the reaction time of the eye. Moreover, as C. T. Gray 
points out in discussing the results of his investigation, it 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 121 

is quite possible for individuals to reduce the duration of 
the pauses to such an extent that reading ceases to be 
efficient.<The remarkable and continued improvement of 
many readers must, therefore, be achieved primarily 
through a reduction in the number of pauses. This means 
of course that progress in the rate of effective reading is 
largely a matter of acquiring the ability to deal with 
progressively larger meaning wholes. The results of 
Gray's investigation show quite conclusively that an 
individual's ability to deal with large wholes may be 
materially improved through practice. 

The location of pauses. — The earliest observers were 
inclined to believe that fixations were usually centered 
upon the middle of words. Huey — whose technique was 
the first to make possible a relatively accurate study of 
location — found that this was far from being the case. 
Indeed, the fixation points were found to fall in almost 
any part of the words and even in the spaces between 
them. Dearborn's results corroborated this and brought 
out in addition certain general tendencies. The "short 
connective and nonsubstantive words and the preposi- 
tional phrases and relative clauses" made on the whole 
the greatest demands upon fixation — nouns, verbs, adjec- 
tives, familiar phrases, and rather long words requiring 
less attention. In part, too, the precise location was 
found to be determined by "the more or less artificial 
peculiarities of spacing, punctuation, and the forms of 
letters in printing, and by "short-lived motor habits 
formed in the course of the reading." 

Schmidt's results show that there is a tendency to fixate 
the apperceptive unit centrally — more words being fix- 



122 THE READING PROCESS 

ated near the center than at the extremes. Pauses located 
in spaces were usually found to be near the center of two 
or more words constituting a unit of perception. This 
tendency toward central location — it is held — is due, in 
part at least, to the fact that we are in the habit of re- 
garding most perceptual objects as units to start with; 
"it is conditioned and facilitated on the one hand by con- 
tributions from peripheral vision and from context, and 
interfered with on the other hand by such factors as 
defective motor control, tendencies toward the formation 
of short-lived motor habits, and objective peculiarities 
demanding analysis." It is pointed out, further, that "the 
words within which the pauses fall do not appear to 
belong prevailingly to any one class nor to a specific 
group of classes. In the case of the slow readers especially 
such a selection would be almost a physical impossibility 
since most words are fixated at least once. In the case of 
average and rapid readers many words are bound to es- 
cape fixation. These appear to be most frequently short 
words which combine readily with others to form apper- 
ceptive units, the most common of these being pronouns, 
prepositions, short adjectives, and auxiliary verbs." Fin- 
ally, it is admitted that there are many exceptions to the 
tendencies toward central fixation and that "the demands 
of perception appear in many cases to be met quite as 
adequately by a fixation near either end of the appercep- 
tive unit as by one centrally located." * 

The most significant fact brought out by the several 
investigations of the location of pauses is that the unit 
of perception varies rather directly with the character of 

1 An Experimental Study in the Psychology of Reading, pp. 62-66. 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 123 

the reader — the more rapid and comprehensive the latter, 
the more striking the word combination and the larger 
the unit, and vice versa. For the most part, then, the 
rapid reader is one who — because of native capacity or 
training or both — is capable of dealing with relatively 
large and logical units. 

Age differences. — One of the main purposes of 
Schmidt's investigation was to determine the influence 
of age and accomplishment upon the various aspects of 
the reading process. Accordingly, a large and varied 
group of individuals — ranging all the way from second 
grade pupils to college students and professors — was 
examined. It was rather surprising to find that the in- 
fluence of age does not appear to be marked — aside from 
the fact that there is of course a normal growth in the 
capacity to deal with increasingly complex reading mate- 
rials as individuals advance in age and accomplishment. 
The results for the three main divisions of this group — 
adults, high school students, and elementary pupils — 
quoted above in connection with our discussion of the 
number and duration of pauses and average perception 
time per line — show quite conclusively that there are no 
significant differences which may be attributed to age 
or accomplishment. The averages for the three groups 
are practically the same. A more detailed examination 
of the results of the elementary and high school divisions 
— as represented by the several grades — shows that there 
is very little correlation between grade rank and reading 
efficiency. Thus the second grade required 5.2 pauses 
per line with an average duration of .348 second when 
reading silently and 8.9 pauses with average duration of 



124 THE READING PROCESS 

.469 second when reading orally; the third grade re- 
quired 9.2 pauses with a duration of .292 second when 
reading silently and 10.9 pauses with a duration of .315 
second when reading orally; the fourth grade required 
5.3 pauses with a duration of .363 second when reading 
silently and 7.6 pauses with a duration of .416 second 
when reading orally; the fifth grade required 6.6 pauses 
with a duration of .298 second when reading silently 
and 8.2 pauses with a duration of .407 second when read- 
ing orally; the sixth grade required 6.5 pauses with a 
duration of .305 second when reading silently and 8.2 
pauses with a duration of .408 second when reading 
orally; the seventh grade required 5.7 pauses with a dura- 
tion of .300 second when reading silently and 6.6 pauses 
with a duration of .369 second when reading 
orally; the ninth grade required 7.5 pauses with a 
duration of .316 second when reading silently and 8.5 
pauses with a duration of .408 second when reading 
orally; the tenth grade required 6.8 pauses with a dura- 
tion of .329 second when reading silently and 8.2 pauses 
with a duration of .378 second when reading orally; the 
eleventh grade required 6.5 pauses with a duration of .289 
second when reading silently and 8.5 pauses with a dura- 
tion of .372 second when reading orally; and the twelfth 
grade required 7.6 pauses with a duration of .312 second 
when reading silently and 9.1 pauses with a duration of 
.349 second when reading orally. 

Evidently second grade pupils who have mastered the 
mechanics of reading are capable of reading quite as rap- 
idly as pupils in succeeding grades — provided the mate- 
rials are adapted to their maturity. Nevertheless, as 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 125 

Schmidt points out, there are in evidence — in the case 
of the second and third grades — indications which tend 
to show that reading habits are very loosely established 
at this stage and that the range of individual variation 
is likely to be more marked than later on. The striking 
differences between the silent reading averages of the 
second and third grades certainly point in this direction. 
The unusually high oral reading averages of these two 
grades add further confirmation. The high oral reading 
average of the second grade is especially striking in view 
of its marked achievement in silent reading. As might 
be expected, the extremely complex mechanism which 
controls oral reading is obviously more loosely established 
than the much simpler mechanism governing silent read- 
ing. By the time pupils reach the fourth grade, however, 
both oral and silent reading habits — as far as eye move- 
ment is concerned — appear to be rather well established, 
though individual variation may still be somewhat more 
marked than later on. 

C. T. Gray concludes on the basis of his investigation 
of the eye movements of children that there is a certain 
amount of correlation between age or grade rank and the 
number of pauses required in the reading of a given line. 
He found a rather definite and progressive reduction in 
the numbers of pauses — much more so than in the case 
of the durations — as pupils advanced from grade to grade. 
Thus the third grade required 10.0 pauses with an aver- 
age duration of .284 second when reading silently; the 
fourth grade 9.1 pauses with a duration of .250 second; 
the fifth grade 10.0 pauses with a duration of .276 sec- 
ond; the sixth grade 7.5 pauses with a duration of .250 



126 THE READING PROCESS 

second; the seventh grade 7.8 pauses with a duration of 
.272 second; the high school students 6.4 pauses with a 
duration of .230 second; and the college students 6.9 
pauses with a duration of .226 second. 1 

The results of these two studies — although pointing to 
somewhat different tendencies — are not necessarily con- 
tradictory. The differences may be due to differences in 
the conditions under which the experiments were carried 
on. Schmidt's subjects read materials which made as 
nearly as possible equal demands upon the several age 
and grade groups and his conclusions are limited to read- 
ing going on under such conditions. It is quite possible 
that Gray's materials — as is so often the case — may have 
made somewhat heavier demands upon the lower grades 
than upon the upper grades and the adults. Under such 
conditions a progressive reduction in the numbers of 
pauses would be in accordance with expectation. Finally, 
it must be borne in mind that neither of these investiga- 
tions concerned itself with a given group of children as 
they advanced from grade to grade. The results for the 
several age and grade levels are based upon the accom- 
plishments of groups of individuals who happened to be 
at these particular levels. A study of the first type — in 
which the same group of children would be measured at 
the several age and grade levels — would give far more 
reliable results. Such a study would require years of 
observation but it would be thoroughly worth while. 

Individual differences. — One of the most striking char- 
acteristics of the reading process — brought to light 
through the investigation of eye movement' — is the tre- 

1 Types of Reading Ability, pp. 91-105. 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 127 

mendous range of individual variation. As indicated 
earlier, Dearborn was the first to stress this fact. Each 
successive study has furnished additional evidence. In 
general, it is not uncommon for one individual to require 
twice as many pauses as another or to use pauses which 
are twice as long as those of another. And some indi- 
viduals — as shown by the average perception time per 
line — actually read silently more than three times as fast 
as others. In the case of children these differences are 
not infrequently found in the same class and under the 
best of instruction. 

In large part this variation must be attributed to native 
differences — some individuals simply being born with the 
capacity to read more rapidly than others. In the case of 
children in the lower grades, variation is to some extent 
due to developmental differences. Some children mature 
more slowly than others and in consequence pass more 
gradually from slow and cumbersome to rapid and fluent 
reading. Then there are of course pathological cases — 
cases which necessitate clinical treatment. In the case 
of adults slow reading may be — and often is — the result 
of habit. In such cases — cases in which the actual read- 
ing accomplishment of the individual does not approxi- 
mate the limits set by native endowment — marked im- 
provement may be brought about through conscious en- 
deavor. Finally, the great cause of individual differences 
in reading — as in most other forms of human behavior — 
must be sought in native differences — differences which 
cannot be swept away through training. 

Differences between oral and silent reading. — Schmidt 
was the first to make an extensive comparison of oral and 



128 THE READING PROCESS 

silent reading on the basis of eye movement. Each of 
the eighty-three subjects was examined for both types 
of reading. As might be expected, oral reading is a slower 
and more cumbersome process than silent reading. It 
makes materially heavier demands upon the number and 
duration of the pauses and upon perception time. In the 
case of Schmidt's subjects the excess expenditure in oral 
reading — as compared with the silent — amounted to ap- 
proximately 25 per cent for both the number and the 
duration of the pauses and to more than 50 per cent in the 
case of the perception time. 

While these differences are far from negligible they 
are not as marked as might be expected. The rate of 
oral reading is severely limited by the physiological 
mechanism of vocalization — so much so that we can pro- 
nounce and enunciate only at a given rate. The rate of 
silent reading is much less determined. To a certain 
extent it is of course controlled by inner speech but — 
as has been repeatedly demonstrated — there are almost 
no limits to the extent in which this may be abbreviated 
and reduced. The chief limitation of silent reading is, 
therefore, found in the reader's capacity to perceive and 
assimilate. That it is quite possible in actual practice to 
make marked distinctions between the rates of these two 
types of reading — the oral and the silent — is shown by 
the fact that several of Schmidt's subjects read nearly 
three times as fast silently as orally. That these differ- 
ences are not more commonly realized is due in large part 
to the fact that individuals have not been taught to 
distinguish between oral and silent reading. In fact, most 
individuals have been trained to read orally rather than 



EYE MOVEMENT IN READING 129 

silently. In consequence their silent reading differs from 
the oral chiefly in that the words are being pronounced 
silently rather than orally — the play of the speech 
mechanism being about as marked in one case as in the 
other. 

O'Brien, 1 too, has made a recent and elaborate experi- 
mental study of eye movement with reference to im- 
provement in rate in silent reading. He summarizes his 
results as follows: 

The eye movement records show that the improvement (in rate 
of silent reading) is effected physiologically chiefly by a lessening 
of the number of fixations rather than by a shortening of the 
average duration of the fixations. The improvement is also accom- 
panied by a decrease in the number of regressive movements and 
by the "setting up" of habits of regular rhythmical eye movements. 
The pedagogical implication of this finding is that short exposure 
exercises, in which the amount of material exposed is gradually 
increased, rather than the amount of exposure being decreased, 
tend to develop speed in reading. It demonstrates that the direc- 
tions in the types of training, outlined in this study, to "see more 
at a glance," etc., are well based. It shows that the development of 
speed in silent reading is, in reality, reducible to the more effective 
utilization of the perceptual span in reading. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Ahrens — Die Bewegung der Augen beim Schreiben; Rostock, 

1891. 

2. Dearborn, W. F. — "The Psychology of Reading"; Columbia 

University Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology, 
XIV, No. 1. 

3. Delabarre, E. B. — "A Method of Recording Eye Movements" ; 

American Journal of Psychology, IX, 572-574. 

4. Dodge, R., and Cline, T. S.— "The Angle Velocity of Eye 

Movements"; Psychological Review, VIII. 

5. Dodge, R. — "An Experimental Study of Visual Fixation"; 

Psychological Review Monograph Supplement, VIII. 
'See "Selected References" (14). 



130 THE READING PROCESS 

-"Recent Studies in the Correlation of Eye Movement 

and Visual Perception"; Psychological Bulletin, III. 

-"Visual Perception during Eye Movement"; Psycho- 



logical Review, 1900. 

-"Psychology of Reading"; Monroe's Cyclopedia of Edu- 



cation; The Macmillan Company. 

6. Erdmann, B., and Dodge, R. — Psychologische Untersuchungen 

ueber das Lesen auf experiment aler Grundlage; Halle, 1898. 

7. Gray, C. T. — "Types of Reading Ability as Exhibited through 

Tests and Laboratory Experiments"; Supplementary Educa- 
tional Monographs, I, No. 5. 

8. Huey, E. B. — Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1908. 
"Preliminary Experiments in the Physiology and Psy- 
chology of Reading"; American Journal of Psychology, IX. 
-"Physiology and Psychology of Reading"; American 



Journal of Psychology, XI and XII. 
9. Javal, Emile — "Sur la physiologie de la lecture"; Annales 
tfOculistique, 1878 and 1879. 

10. Judd, Chas. H. — "Photographic Records of Convergence and 

Divergence"; Yale Psychological Studies, N. S. I, No. 2. 

11. Lamare — "Des movements des yeux pendant la lecture" ; Com- 

pletes rendus de la societe frangaise d' ophthalmogie , 1898. 

12. Schmidt, W. A. — "An Experimental Study in the Psychology 

of Reading"; Supplementary Educational Monographs, I, 
No. 2. 

13. Buswell, G. T. — "An Experimental Study of the Eye- Voice 

Span in Reading" ; Supplementary Educational Monographs, 
No. 17. 

14. O'Brien, J. A. — Silent Reading — with Special Reference to 

Methods for Developing Speed; The Macmillan Company. 



CHAPTER VII 

PERCEPTUAL AND INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES IN READING 

Our discussion of eye movement — especially in so far 
as it related to the fixation pause — has already thrown 
considerable light upon the nature of perceptual and in- 
terpretative processes in reading. The pause — during 
which we perceive the materials on the printed page — 
was found to vary widely with different individuals. In- 
deed, so striking was this variation that we were led 
to infer that individuals must be endowed with widely 
varying perceptual and interpretative capacities. The 
perceptual span — as indicated by the amount which an 
individual could perceive on an average during a pause — 
and the rate of interpretation or assimilation — as shown 
by the average duration of the pauses — were found to be 
independent variables coexisting in all possible combina- 
tions. Some individuals not only grasp much during a 
pause but assimilate quickly; others grasp much but 
assimilate slowly; still others grasp little but assimilate 
quickly; and finally there are those who not only grasp 
little but assimilate slowly as well. 

However interesting and significant these facts may be, 
they leave much unanswered. They have nothing to say 
regarding the relationship between the visual and the 
perceptual span ; they do not explain the manner in which 
we perceive the units on the printed page — be these 

131 



132 THE READING PROCESS 

words, phrases, or sentences; nor do they throw much 
light upon the nature of assimilative and interpretative 
processes as such. We must make further inquiries, there- 
fore. Fortunately there is again a considerable body of 
experimental material at our command. 

The visual field. — As is commonly known, the structure 
of the retina is such that the field of clear vision is of 
necessity limited. In the center we find the fovea cen- 
tralis — a depression approximately one fifth of a milli- 
meter in diameter — which constitutes the area of clear- 
est vision. On the printed page this represents under or- 
dinary reading conditions a distance of approximately 
four millimeters — the equivalent of three letter spaces. 
Immediately surrounding the fovea lies the macula lutea 
— a yellow structure representing together with the fovea 
a horizontal diameter of approximately three millimeters 
— which constitutes an area of less distinct vision. On 
the printed page the macula lutea and the fovea cover 
under normal reading conditions a distance of some sixty- 
four millimeters — about forty-five letter spaces. Within 
this area vision decreases rather gradually in clearness as 
the distance from the fovea increases. 

Ruediger's investigation of the visual field. — Ruedi- 
ger * has made the most complete study of the visual field 
as related to reading. He mapped the field of distinct 
vision for each of a number of individuals by determining 
— along various meridians — the distances from a central 
point at which the letters n and u could be distinguished. 
Then he measured the reading rates of these individuals 
including the number of pauses which they required in 

"See "Selected References" (12). 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 133 

reading lines of a given length. Thereupon he com- 
pared the extents of the visual fields with the reading 
rates and the numbers of pauses of these individuals in 
order that he might determine the relationship between 
the two. 

In general it was found that "the field of distinct vision 
has no clear-cut boundary line but shades off gradually 
into indistinct vision"; that "the extent of the field varies 
with the size, legibility, and distance from the eye of the 
test units" ; that "the shape of the field — bounded by 
points of equal distinctness — varies in different individ- 
uals from a square-oval, about twice as long horizontally 
as wide vertically, to a circle" ; that "the size of the field 
varies" with individuals "approximately as 2 to 1 in 
the horizontal diameter, as 1.5 to 1 in the vertical dia- 
meter, and as 2 to 1 in area; and that the extent of the 
field cannot be appreciably increased through training." 
It was found, further, that there was no definite relation 
between the extent of the visual field and reading rate 
or number of pauses. Ruediger concludes, therefore, 
"that reading rate is in the main determined centrally by 
the rapidity with which meaning is aroused after the 
words are seen" — rather than peripherally by such factors 
as the extent of the visual field. 1 C. T. Gray — who has 
more recently made similar tests with a group of children 
— secured results which are in general agreement with the 
above, though he found, if anything, a slightly wider span 
of distinct vision. 2 

The perceptual span. — As will become increasingly evi- 

1 Field of Distinct Vision, p. 68. 

2 Types oj Reading Ability, p. 145. 



134 THE READING PROCESS 

dent, the visual and the perceptual span do not corre- 
spond. In other words, it is one thing to see clearly 
stimuli extending over a given distance on the printed 
page and quite another to perceive and interpret them. 
The latter is a far more complex and variable process. 
Other things being equal the extent of the perceptual 
span depends largely upon the individual's ability to 
group stimuli and to assimilate them in large wholes. 
All of which means, of course, that it is dependent upon 
elaborate mental processes. The visual span, on the 
other hand, is almost entirely conditioned by physiological 
and mechanical factors. 

The perceptual span has been a favored subject for 
experimental investigation. Most frequently investiga- 
tions which have concerned themselves with the percep- 
tual span have been carried on by means of some kind 
of short exposure apparatus — usually the tachistoscope. 
With this apparatus a variety of stimuli — dots, lines, fig- 
ures, letters, nonsense syllables, words, and even sen- 
tences — are exposed to the reader during very short inter- 
vals. In this way it is possible to determine quite accu- 
rately the varying amounts of the several kinds of mate- 
rials which different individuals are able to grasp during 
given intervals. Although there were earlier experiment- 
ers in the field, Cattell was the first to secure thoroughly 
significant data regarding the span of perception as re- 
lated to reading. Letters, numbers, words, and sentences 
were exposed successively during intervals of one one- 
hundredth of a second. Under these conditions the per- 
ceptual span appeared to be limited approximately to four 
figures or letters, two to four monosyllabic words, and 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 135 

sentences of from three to seven words. These results 
brought out in a striking way the effects of possibilities 
for grouping — the span increasing appreciably with the 
possibilities for combining letters into words and words 
into sentences. Somewhat later, Erdmann and Dodge 
secured results which are in close agreement with the 
above although the exposure intervals were ten times as 
long. Their subjects rarely grasped more than four or five 
isolated letters at one exposure. When the letters were 
grouped in words four and five times as many were 
grasped, and when the words appeared in sentences as 
many as six and seven were perceived at one glance. 

Huey also used the tachistoscope in connection with 
some of his investigations. His procedure differed from 
the above in that he exposed successive portions of read- 
ing material in context rather than in isolation. The 
horizontal extent of these portions varied from seventeen 
and one half to forty millimeters. Several individuals 
were able to read continuously for considerable distances 
when the extent of the exposures was limited to twenty- 
five millimeters — about sixteen letter spaces. When the 
extent was increased to forty millimeters, not any were 
able to make consistent progress, though exposures of 
this length were grasped at times. 

Quantz attacked the same problem in connection with 
oral reading by determining how far an individual was 
able to read after the printed material had been unexpect- 
edly shut off from view. He found that the amount 
which it was possible to read under these conditions de- 
pended to a considerable extent upon the part of the line 
in which the view was obstructed — the averages for the 



136 



THE READING PROCESS 



beginning, the middle, and the end of the line being 
7.4, 5.1, and 3.8 words respectively. 

The effect of practice upon the perceptual span. — 
More recently investigators have been interested in de- 
termining the extent to which it is possible to improve 
the perceptual span through practice. Whipple experi- 
mented with both isolated letters and sense materials. 
In the case of the former — the isolated letters — the effect 
of practice was negligible. In connection with the latter 
— the sense materials — practice resulted in rather marked 
improvement. Whipple attributes this improvement to 
the fact that sense materials always represent possibilities 
for grouping — the development of grouping schemes being 
facilitated by practice. The range of individual variation 
was, however, so marked that he is inclined to regard the 
effect of practice negligible when compared with native 
endowment. 

C. T. Gray has recently subjected a number of children 
to similar practice in connection with sense materials. In 
the case of two sixth grade boys the effect of practice 
was negligible. Two fourth grade pupils on the other 
hand showed rather marked improvement. On the 
strength of this showing Gray is disposed to conclude 
that practice should come as early as possible — the use of 
flash cards in the primary grades being especially com- 
mended. 1 

Gray, further, attacked the problem of the relationship 
between the perceptual span and the rate of reading. He 
determined the reading rates and the perceptual spans for 
a considerable number of children — the former by means 

1 Types of Reading Ability, pp. 123-146. 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 137 

of standardized tests and the latter through a short ex- 
posure apparatus and the interruption method used by 
Quantz. A comparison of the two — the reading rates on 
the one hand and the perceptual spans on the other — 
showed a rather intimate relationship — the reading rate 
increasing progressively as the perceptual span widens. 
This relationship, Gray holds, may be explained in the 
following manner: 

As the reader looks at a point on the line he sees some elements 
clearly and some vaguely. The next fixation brings into clear 
perception elements of the line which a moment before were per- 
ceived vaguely. There is an overlapping of spans of attention and 
the expert reader is able to take advantage more completely than 
the poor reader of a wide range of experience which lies outside 
the immediate center of attention. 1 

However that may be, the important facts for us to 
bear in mind are — first, that there is an intimate relation- 
ship between the perceptual span and reading rate; and 
second, that the perceptual span may be improved 
through training. 

The nature of the perceptual process in reading. — 
Experimental students of reading have been much con- 
cerned with the problem of determining the manner in 
which the units on the printed page are perceived. Most 
immediately the issue has centered about the question of 
the part played by letters in the perception of words. 
Before the days of extensive experimentation it was gen- 
erally supposed that the eye passes from letter to letter 
across the page — each word being as it were spelled out 
before it is recognized. The investigation of eye move- 
ment showed of course that the eye progresses in no 

1 Types of Reading Ability, pp. 137-138. 



138 



THE READING PROCESS 



such even manner but rather by leaps and bounds. And 
what is more, tachistoscopic experimentation showed 
that not only whole words and phrases but entire sen- 
tences — embracing as many as seven words — could be 
grasped during an interval representing an almost in- 
finitesimal fraction of a second. While such facts shat- 
tered the naive theory of successive letter perception, 
they did not settle the question of the nature of word 
perception. 

In time two rather widely diverging theories came to be 
formulated. According to one of these, word perception 
is mediated by characteristic letters and letter complexes, 
and, according to the other, words — once we have become 
familiar with them — are perceived by virtue of their total 
form — the form of each word being regarded as charac- 
teristically different from that of every other word. 
With certain exceptions German investigators have 
adhered rather steadily to the former of these hypo- 
theses, while Americans — experimenting both abroad and 
at home — have generally upheld the latter. 

Goldscheider and Mueller's investigation. — Gold- 
scheider and Mueller * — who undertook the first of a long 
series of German investigations — reached conclusions 
which are more or less neutral as regards these two hypo- 
theses. They admit that total word form tends to play 
an increasingly important role as one's familiarity with 
words grows. Nevertheless, they contend that word 
perception is to a considerable extent mediated by char- 
acteristic letters — these serving to call up the total word 
forms. They found in the course of their investigation 

"See "Selected References" (6). 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 139 

that there are in most words two kinds of letters — the 
indifferent and the determining. The omission of the 
former did not interfere with tachistoscopic perception 
since words were readily recognized through the latter. 
The omission of the latter — the determining letters — on 
the other hand rendered tachistoscopic perception prac- 
tically impossible. They conclude, therefore, that deter- 
mining letters serve as cues to call up total word forms. 
They were unwilling, however, to classify the letters of 
the alphabet as per se either determining or indifferent, 
feeling that position within the word had much to do 
with this — though consonants are more likely to be char- 
acteristic than vowels. 

Zeitler's investigation. — Zeitler, 1 whose investigation 
followed upon that of Goldscheider and Mueller, is dis- 
posed to regard word form as a negligible factor in word 
perception. He accepts and elaborates the theory of de- 
termining letters and complexes or dominating parts, as 
he calls them. These dominating parts may be letters, 
combinations of letters, syllables, and in cases where the 
unit of perception is a phrase or a sentence even short 
words. These parts alone, he holds, are immediately ap- 
perceived — the rest being supplied associatively from 
within. In the case of units representing several dominat- 
ing parts the attention is supposed to fluctuate from one 
part to another until all are grasped. These fluctuations 
are supposed to follow each other so rapidly that we are 
quite unaware of them. 

Messmer's investigation. — Messmer, 2 who followed 

"See "Selected References" (16). 
'See "Selected References" (10), 



140 THE READING PROCESS 

with another elaborate investigation, accepts in general 
the theory of successive perception as mediated by domi- 
nating parts and the fluctuation of the attention. He is, 
however, more guarded in his conclusions than Zeitler — 
in part, perhaps, because he worked with a larger number 
of individuals. In any event, he groups his readers into 
two classes — the subjective, characterized by a wide and 
fluctuating span of attention; and the objective, charac- 
terized by a much narrower and relatively fixed span. 
The former are strongly influenced by total word form 
while the latter are generally dependent upon dominating 
parts. Beyond this, the former — because of their ten- 
dency to guess — are subject to considerable error, while 
the latter — because of their matter of fact disposition — 
are highly accurate in their perception of visual forms. 

In discussing letters Messmer points out that quantita- 
tively each letter has the characteristics of height and 
breadth and qualitatively those of geometrical form and 
color. In fact, height and geometrical form largely deter- 
mine the characteristic form of a word. Accordingly, 
dominating letters and parts are almost invariably such 
as project prominently above the line. Finally, Messmer 
holds that the tendency to perceive words by their total 
form increases in proportion as the word forms are char- 
acteristic and unitary — the objective type of reader being, 
however, always excluded from such perception. 

Cattell's and Erdmann and Dodge's investigations. — 
As indicated above, American investigators have rather 
consistently supported the theory that we perceive words 
— and even larger wholes — by their total form. Cattell, 1 

'See "Selected References" (2). 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 141 

one of the first to carry on extensive investigations in this 
field, early reached this conclusion — largely because he 
found that these larger units could be perceived as quickly 
as single letters. Erdmann and Dodge, 1 whose work fol- 
lowed somewhat later, reached similar conclusions. They 
found that words were perceived at distances and under 
conditions which precluded the possibility of letter recog- 
nition. What is more, short words were at times recog- 
nized even more quickly than single letters and long words 
required little more time. There was ample evidence, 
moreover, that those words which have the most charac- 
teristic forms are most readily recognized. Finally, these 
investigators point out that we tend to perceive the ob- 
jects of everyday experience primarily as wholes — analy- 
sis being a secondary factor— and that there is no reason 
why perception in reading should constitute an excep- 
tion. 

Dearborn's investigation. — Extensive experimentation 
and a careful examination of the results of German in- 
vestigators led Dearborn 2 to conclude that the presence of 
characteristic or dominating letters and letter complexes 
in no way "lessens the chance of perception of words as 
wholes." On the contrary these contribute to the charac- 
teristic forms of words and so are "made use of as cues in 
perception." Nor does Dearborn find the slightest evi- 
dence of a fluctuation of the attention. Such a fluctua- 
tion, he holds, would of necessity be accompanied by 
motor processes — especially motor processes of the eyes. 
Accordingly, in order to test the matter thoroughly, Dear- 
^ee "Selected References" (5). 
3 See "Selected References" (4). 



142 THE READING PROCESS 

born photographed the eyes during tachistoscopic read- 
ing. The photographic records which he secured gave no 
evidence whatever of any movement or unsteadiness on 
the part of the eyes which could be interpreted as being 
due to a fluctuation of the attention. He concludes, there- 
fore, that the investigations of Zeitler and Messmer have 
simply brought out the fact that the span of attention is 
subject to marked individual variation. In consequence 
of this, "the subject who can read but small sections may 
have to combine them in order to obtain wholes/' while 
the subject who is able to seize "the larger sections and 
whole words has them to start with and so has no need of 
synthesis." * 

Huey's investigation. — In making an experimental 
analysis of total word form Huey 2 found that "the first 
half of the word is of considerably greater importance 
for perception than the latter half." The same thing was 
found to be true of the upper part as compared with the 
lower. Huey's conclusions regarding the nature of the 
perceptual process in reading are on the whole very simi- 
lar to those of Cattell, Erdmann and Dodge, and Dear- 
born. Although disposed to ascribe a rather prominent 
place to the part played by characteristic letters and letter 
complexes, he does not hold that these are perceived as 
separate units in advance of word form as such. To quote 
directly: 

However, while the experiments of these investigators indicate 
the special part which the dominant letters and letter groups play 
in setting off the word recognition, we need by no means suppose 

1 Psychology of Reading, p. 52. 

2 See "Selected References" (8). 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 143 

that the former are always or usually apperceived as distinct 
letters in performing their function of special signs. Through 
their being the most obvious parts optically, and through habit, 
they have come to be most quickly operative in unlocking the 
word recognitions; but in ordinary reading they would seem to 
have but a minimum of attention, performing their function auto- 
matically and without any apperceptive act that is distinct from 
that for the larger whole in which the recognition is subsumed. 
When that total recognition completes itself, however, we are apt 
to be conscious of these dominant forms as the most prominent 
parts of the word. 

With some readers, however, and perhaps with all of us for 
many words, the total form, word length, etc., seem to charac- 
terize the word and are apparently the first factors in its recog- 
nition. In these cases the stimulations from all the parts and 
points which signalize this total form are operative simultaneously 
as cues which set off the projection of this form, and this gen- 
eral outline rather than a few particular dominant letter shapes 
is the aspect of which we are apt to be most conscious in the 
total recognition. In such cases the recognition could well be set 
off by a skeleton drawing of the word showing no particular letter 
forms, and might well occur at distances at which particular let- 
ters were no longer recognizable as such. 1 

Conclusions regarding the nature of the perceptual 
process in reading. — In general we may conclude, then, 
that we tend to perceive words and phrases, and at 
times even sentences, as wholes. However, it must be 
borne in mind that our discussion has concerned itself 
largely with developed perception — the assumption being 
that the reader has not only mastered the mechanics of 
reading but that he has through repeated experience with 
words become thoroughly familiar with their form. In 
the case of words, the pronunciation of which has not 
been thoroughly mastered or which have not become 

1 Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, pp. 109-110. 



144 THE READING PROCESS 

familiar through repeated use, recognition by wholes is, of 
course, out of the question. Such words cannot be recog- 
nized until a certain amount of analysis has taken place. 
As a matter of fact word mastery and reading are two 
rather distinct processes, so much so, in fact, that they 
are generally allotted separate practice periods. In con- 
sequence the pupil is supposed to be relatively familiar 
with word forms before he attempts to read. No doubt 
much drill in rapid word and phrase recognition in the 
lower grades would materially facilitate early perception 
by wholes. 

The perception of a word or phrase is, as Huey points 
out, an act — an act not radically different from some gym- 
nastic performance, such as tossing a ball. Performances 
of this kind become automatic only through practice, and 
the final execution is likely to be quite different from the 
initial and intermediary performances — the irrelevant 
having been eliminated and the essential perfected. So 
in mastering a word an individual may at first be com- 
pelled to examine the form in detail. As time goes on, 
details are dispensed with more and more, and finally a 
few characteristics of the word form suffice for recog- 
nition. That we during these later stages should reason 
out as it were the visual form by attending successively 
or even alternately to the several letters or letter com- 
plexes is of course quite out of the question — indeed, 
quite as much so as is attention to details in connection 
with a skilled motor performance. 

The inner speech in reading. — Any discussion of the 
perceptual process in reading which fails to take into 
consideration the function of inner speech must be essen- 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 145 

tially incomplete. That inner speech plays an important 
part in reading and in thinking generally becomes obvious 
once we turn our attention to these processes. And it 
is quite in accordance with expectation that it should 
do so. Thinking, speaking, and reading are three forms 
of language activity — each proceeding in terms of sym- 
bols of one kind or other, most commonly the word. 
When we think, we discuss things with ourselves; when 
we speak, we discuss things with others; and when we 
read, we follow the discussion of someone else. In con- 
nection with the first two we use the spoken word as a 
symbol and in connection with the third the written 
word. 

It must be borne in mind, however, that the written 
word is a mere transcription of the spoken word and that 
the two are intimately associated. Moreover, most of 
us think and speak much more than we read so that the 
spoken word is much more firmly embedded than the 
written word. It is, therefore, not surprising that the 
perception of the written word should be accompanied by 
some degree of articulation and hearing. 

The experimental study of the problem. — This prob- 
lem — like most of the preceding — has been subjected to 
considerable observation and experimentation. The 
earliest investigators — Ribot, Bain, Egger, Ballet, Striker, 
Lotze, and others — were primarily concerned with the 
extent and the characteristics of inner speech as such. 
Their method was largely introspective. Their conclu- 
sions all pointed in the same general direction ; namely, 
that inner speech not only accompanies but conditions the 
use of words in thinking and reading. Lotze held that 



146 THE READING PROCESS 

the same thing was true for music — the recall of tones or 
series of tones being conditioned and accompanied by an 
inner singing. However, these early observers stressed 
the motor rather than the auditory characteristics of 
inner speech. 

A later group of observers — Stumpf, Paulhan, Bald- 
win, and Collins — questioned the necessity and univer- 
sality of inner speech. Stumpf and Baldwin both con- 
tended that they were able to think of tones quite inde- 
pendently of inner accompaniments. Paulhan took a 
similar position regarding thinking and reading. Collins' 
discovery of a case of cortical motor aphasia, in which 
the inner speech was gone but the patient was still able 
to read, appeared to lend further support to the position 
which they were assuming. 

Meanwhile Dodge had been making a rather extensive 
study of his own speech mechanism. He found that inner 
speech played a very important part in his thinking and 
reading. However, there was in evidence a decided ten- 
dency toward a shortening of the pronunciation and a 
slurring of the words, especially when he read rapidly. 
Dodge's general conclusion is that movements of articula- 
tion are not an essential factor in inner speech — repro- 
duced movement feelings being sufficient. Bawden at a 
somewhat later date came to similar conclusions. Huey, 
on the other hand, is disposed to regard inner speech 
as a complex involving both motor and auditory elements 
— one or the other usually predominating. "Sometimes," 
he states, "when the inner speech was very prominent it 
was difficult for the reader to say whether it was auditory 
or motor although it seemed to him to be of but one kind. 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 147 

The fact is," he continues, "that what we say is always 
heard as well, and there comes to be an indissoluble union 
of the auditory and motor elements. Our hearing, too, 
has an active aspect which may go so far as to include an 
inner saying, or imitation, of what is heard. And so the 
auditory and motor types of readers are really apt to be 
audito-motor types, with one or the other aspect leading 
in many cases." * 

Finally, those investigators who have had at their com- 
mand measuring devices capable of recording articulatory 
movements have invariably detected the presence of such 
movements. Curtis not only succeeded in registering 
the movements of the larynx but he found that these were 
far more marked when an individual was thinking of 
something definite or when he was reading silently than 
when he was thinking of nothing in particular. Courten 
in recording the movements of the tongue under similar 
conditions secured practically the same results. 

Experiments intended to determine whether inner 
speech is an essential characteristic or merely a super- 
fluous habit. — The presence of an inner articulation in 
connection with thinking and silent reading having been 
rather generally confirmed, investigators set to work to 
determine whether this constitutes an essential charac- 
teristic of these processes or whether it is largely a super- 
fluous habit. They accordingly devised means designed 
to eliminate such articulation during silent reading. If 
reading should prove possible under such conditions it 
would tend to show that articulatory movements were 
not essential. 

1 Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, p. 120. 



148 THE READING PROCESS 

Secor's investigation. — Secor 1 was one of the first to 
attack the problem. He provided for the inhibition of the 
musculature of articulation by having his subjects whistle 
or repeat the alphabet aloud while reading silently. One 
of his subjects appeared to make fair progress under these 
conditions. Secor next attempted to eliminate the audi- 
tory factor — that is the inner hearing — by having a xylo- 
phone played near the subject. The reading still con- 
tinued. Secor concluded, therefore, that "it is possible 
to read without articulation and audition" — these being 
considered as aids rather than as necessary elements. 
However, as Pintner points out, it is highly questionable 
whether such methods of suppressing audition can be 
relied upon since inner hearing appears to function in 
spite of great noise. Also, it is very doubtful whether 
the repetition of the alphabet suffices to obliterate all 
articulatory traces. 

Pintner's investigation. — Pintner 2 more recently at- 
tacked the same problem. He limited himself to a quan- 
titative study of reading under conditions in which articu- 
lation was excluded — no attempt being made to inhibit 
audition. His subjects read selected prose passages silently 
while repeating aloud the numbers 13, 14, 15, 16. Pintner 
feels that the possibilities for word articulation were shut 
out in this way. He does not contend, however, that it is 
possible to eliminate all traces and vestiges of articula- 
tion. Indeed, he holds that these may be present in spite 
of all introspective evidence to the contrary. After a 
certain amount of practice his subjects were able to read 



*See "Selected References" (14). 
'See "Selected References" (11). 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 149 

as rapidly and effectively without articulation as under 
normal conditions, and although both subjects returned 
to articulation after the removal of the restrictions, they 
showed a decided improvement in their rate of reading, 
and both felt that the amount of articulation had been 
permanently reduced. Pintner concludes, therefore, that 
articulation is a habit which is not essential in connection 
with reading; that "practice in reading without articula- 
tion can make such reading as good as the ordinary read- 
ing; and that such practice "tends to aid ordinary read- 
ing, most probably by shortening the habitual practice of 
articulation." 1 

The significance of Pintner's results. — The chief sig- 
nificance of Pintner's results lies doubtless in the fact that 
they establish the possibility of improving the rate of 
silent reading through a reduction of articulation. That 
an increase in the rate of reading is accompanied by an 
abbreviation and a slurring of inner speech has of course 
been repeatedly pointed out by such investigators as 
Huey and Dodge. Indeed, if it were not for the possi- 
bility of such curtailment, improvement in the rate of 
silent reading would be almost as severely limited as 
is improvement in the rate of oral reading. Whether a 
direct attack upon the problem of reduction — such as that 
suggested by Pintner's procedure — would prove practi- 
cable remains to be determined. The results of C. T. 
Gray's recent experiment point in this direction. A num- 
ber of children — children who showed a marked degree 
of vocalization — were subjected to a period of training for 
reduction. The procedure was very simple, the subjects 

1 Inner Speech during Silent Reading, pp. 152-153. 



150 THE READING PROCESS 

being simply told to read in their natural manner but 
without vocalization. The practice resulted in a marked 
decrease in articulation and in a general increase in the 
rate of reading. In connection with most selections there 
was, however, — under these conditions — in evidence a loss 
in comprehension. Whether this could have been over- 
come through further practice is not known. "It is pos- 
sible/' as Gray suggests, "that the mental activity of chil- 
dren proceeds in a large measure in terms of vocal reac- 
tions and that the process of abridging these reactions 
must be a slow and gradual process." * 

O'Brien's Investigation. — As a result of recent exten- 
sive experimentation in "training to decrease vocaliza- 
tion," O'Brien 2 reached the following conclusion: 

Investigation showed, however, that the effort to lessen inner 
articulation was far more successful when the individual not only 
consciously endeavored to inhibit such movements but also read 
rapidly at the same time. The comfortable, leisurely rate of read- 
ing to which the average individual is accustomed seems particu- 
larly favorable to the arousal of the usual articulatory movements. 

It was found that when to the conscious attempt at inhibition 
was joined rapid reading, the decrease of inner articulation was 
effected more promptly and more thoroughly. Apparently, these 
two factors are so closely interrelated that a mutual casual rela- 
tionship exists between them. The exclusion of rapid reading 
from the training to decrease vocalization would have deprived the 
latter of one of its most effective aids. 

SELECTED KEFEKENCES 

1. Cattell, J. M. — "Time and Space in Vision"; Psychological 

Review, VII, 1900. 
"The Inertia of the Eye and Brain"; Brain, VIII, 

1886. 
"Ueber die Zeit der Erkennung und Benennung von 



1 Types of Reading Ability, pp. 162-164. 

2 See "Selected References" (17). 



PERCEPTUAL— INTERPRETATIVE PROCESSES 151 

Schriftzeichen, Eildern, und Farben"; Philosophische Stu- 
dies II, 1885. 

2. Courten, H. C. — "Involuntary Movements of the Tongue"; 

Yale Psychological Studies, X, 1902. 

3. Curtis, H. S. — "Automatic Movements of the Larynx"; Amer- 

ican Journal of Psychology, XI, 1889. 

4. Dearborn, W. F. — "The Psychology of Reading"; Columbia 

University Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology, 
XIV, No. 1. 

5. Erdmann and Dodge — Psychologische Untersuchungen ueber 

das Lesen auf experimentaler Grundlage; Halle, 1893. 

6. Goldscheider, A., and Mueller, R. F. — "Zur Psychologie und 

Pathologie des Lesens"; Zeitschrift fur Klinische Medizin, 
XXII, 1893. 

7. Gray, C. T. — "Types of Reading Ability as Exhibited through 

Tests and Laboratory Experiments"; Supplementary Educa- 
tional Monographs, I, No. 5. 

8. Huey, E. B. — Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1908. 

9. Judd, Chas. H. — "What is Perception?"; Journal of Philos- 

ophy, Psychology and Science Methods, VI, 36-44, 1909. 

10. Messmer, O. — "Zur Psychologie der Lesens bei Kindern und 

Erwachsenen" ; Archiv fur die Gesante Psychologie, Bd. II, 
H. 2, u. 3, 1903. 

11. Pintner, R. — "Inner Speech during Reading"; Psychological 

Review, XX, 129-153. 

12. Ruediger, W. C. — "Field of Distinct Vision" ; Columbia Uni- 

versity Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology, XVI, 
No. 1, 1907. 

13. Schmidt, W. A. — "An Experimental Study in the Psychology 

of Reading"; Supplementary Educational Monographs, I, 
No. 2. 

14. Secor, W. B.— "Visual Reading: A Study in Mental Im- 

agery"; American Journal of Psychology, XI, 225-236, 1900. 

15. Whipple, G. M.— "The Effect of Practice upon the Range of 

Visual Attention and Visual Apprehension"; Journal of 
Educational Psychology, I, 249-262. 

16. Zeitler, J. — "Tachistoscopische Versuche ueber das Lesen"; 

Wundt's Philosophische Studien, Bd. XVI, H. 3. 

17. O'Brien, J. A. — Silent Reading; The Macmillan Company, 

1921. 



CHAPTER VIII 

READING ABILITY — ITS DEVELOPMENT AND VARIATION 

Reading ability — like most other forms of human be- 
havior — is a variable. It is profoundly affected by differ- 
ences in individual capacities and it varies in some re- 
spects with age and training. The latter — variation with 
age and training — has as far as we know never been denied 
— even in the days antedating the scientific study of the 
reading process. Individual differences on the other hand 
received little recognition until quantitative studies dem- 
onstrated their prevalence and emphasized their signifi- 
cance. Such variations as were in evidence among a 
group of individuals were not uncommonly attributed to 
differences in application and training. We shall review 
briefly some of the quantitative studies upon which our 
knowledge of the development and variation of reading 
ability is so largely dependent. 

Early studies of rate and comprehension. — The earliest 
studies of reading ability were largely concerned with the 
rate and comprehension of adult reading. One of the 
first studies is recorded by Romanes. 1 Incidentally — while 
engaged in major investigations in another field — he 
measured the reading ability of a number of his sub- 
jects by determining the proportion of a simple para- 

a See "Selected References'' (13). 

152 



READING ABILITY 153 

graph which each was able to read during an interval o£ 
twenty seconds and the amount reproduced immediately 
after. The results showed "astonishing differences in the 
maximum rate of reading which is possible to different 
individuals all of whom have been accustomed to exten- 
sive reading" — some individuals reading four times as 
much as others. Furthermore, slow reading was not con- 
ducive to excellence in comprehension. "On the con- 
trary, when all the efforts" were "directed to assimilating 
as much as possible, the rapid reader usually gave a bet- 
ter account of the portion of the paragraph which" had 
"been compassed by the slow readers than the latter" 
were "able to give and the most rapid reader" was "also 
the best at assimilating." The only consolation for the 
slow reader appeared in the fact that there was no evi- 
dence of a direct relationship between reading ability — 
as thus determined — and general intellectual capacity. 
Several of the slow readers were "highly distinguished 
men in science and literature." 1 

More than a decade later Miss Abell 2 undertook an 
investigation at Wellesley College. Forty-one girls were 
asked to read a certain selection at home and to note the 
time required for the reading. At the next class period — 
without having been told so in advance — they were re- 
quested to reproduce the content as nearly verbatim as 
possible. The results showed great individual variation 
in both speed and comprehension. The most rapid reader 
read more than six times as fast as the slowest. There 
was in evidence no very direct relationship between rate 

1 Mental Evolution in Animals, pp. 136-137. 
3 See "Selected References" (1), 



154 THE READING PROCESS 

of reading and comprehension, and yet two of the most 
rapid readers also ranked highest in comprehension. 

Somewhat later Quantz * experimented with fifty 
juniors and seniors at the University of Wisconsin. When 
reading silently his subjects averaged at their normal 
rate from 3.5 to 8.8 words per second and at their maxi- 
mum rate from 3.5 to 12.2 words per second. For oral 
reading at the ordinary rate the averages ranged from 
2.6 to 2.9 words per second. Quantz found further that 
rapid readers generally surpassed the slow in comprehen- 
sion — the differences amounting on an average to about 
37 per cent. 

Huey gives the results for twenty graduate students 
whose reading rates he investigated : 

The reading was from an interesting novel, presenting no spe- 
cial difficulty, and the tests were made under conditions which 
approximated as nearly as possible those of comfortable reading 
in one's own quiet room. The readers were found to range in rate 
from an average of 2.5 words per second for the slowest reader to 
an average of 9.8 words for the fastest, when reading silently at 
their ordinary rate. When the silent reading was at a maximal 
speed, the rates ranged from 3.5 to 13.5 words per second. In 
reading aloud, the average of the slowest reader was 2.2 words 
per second and that of the fastest 4.7, at the ordinary rate, and 
at maximal speed the corresponding range was from 2.9 to 6.4 
words per second. The average rate of the twenty students when 
reading silently was 5.63 words per second at their ordinary speed 
and 8.21 at their maximal, while in reading aloud they averaged 
3.55 words per second at their ordinary speed and 4.58 at their 
maximal. Several of the readers averaged near the fastest rates 
given above, and the other readers were distributed somewhat 
evenly, as to rate, from the fastest rate to one somewhat above 
the slowest. 3 

1 See "Selected References" (12). 

2 Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading, pp. 174-175. 



READING ABILITY 155 

On the strength of observations in connection with this 
and other investigations Huey expresses the belief that 
one's habitual rate of reading may be materially improved 
through judicious practice. 

Dearborn 1 also investigated the reading rate of a num- 
ber of individuals. He selected the fastest and the slowest 
readers from a group of thirty people and found that the 
former read on an average three times as fast as the 
latter. Like Huey he believes that the rate of reading 
may in the case of most individuals be improved through 
consistent practice. 

Recent investigations of rate and comprehension. — 
The earlier investigations — while demonstrating in a very 
forceful manner the existence of marked individual varia- 
tion in adult reading ability — threw practically no light 
upon the most crucial problem from the standpoint of 
educational psychology; namely, the development and 
variation of reading ability in the case of children. Dur- 
ing the early part of the present decade, however, investi- 
gators began to turn their attention toward this problem. 
The investigations of this period were still largely con- 
cerned with rate and comprehension but there is in evi- 
dence a decided shift in emphasis — the investigator con- 
cerning himself primarily with the manner in which these 
factors vary with age and training. 

Waldo's investigation. — Waldo 2 reports one of the 
earliest investigations which concerned itself with the 
reading ability of a considerable number of children. 
Although he was primarily interested in determining the 
effect of practice upon reading ability, his results throw 

*See "Selected References" (3). 2 See "Selected References" (15). 



156 THE READING PROCESS 

considerable light upon the development and variation 
of reading ability from grade to grade. The investigation 
was concerned with children from the third to the eighth 
grades inclusive. Two tests were given — one in Sep- 
tember and the other in March — the children being sub- 
jected to directed training during the intervening period. 
Since scientifically graded reading selections were not 
available at that time, Waldo confined himself to two sets 
of materials — one for grades three to five and the other 
for grades five to eight. The reading was silent and ex- 
tended over a period of five minutes. Comprehension 
tests were given immediately after. In terms of the 
average number of words read per second, the results for 
the several grades were as follows: 



GRADE 


SEPTEMBER TEST 


MARCH TEST 


III 


1.27 words 


2.46 words 


IV 


1.54 " 


2.72 " 


V 


1.88 " 


2.15 " 


VI 


2.10 " 


2.16 « 


VII 


2.04 " 


2,38 " 


VIII 


2.45 " 


2.64 " 



In spite of the absence of standardized reading selec- 
tions, these averages bring out interesting group ten- 
dencies. In the case of the September test there is, 
as Waldo points out, little improvement in the rate of 
reading beyond the fifth grade — although the eighth grade 
is somewhat superior to the sixth and seventh ; the March 
scores show that third and fourth grade pupils can read 
about as rapidly as seventh and eighth grade pupils, pro- 
vided they have received proper training. An examina- 
tion of the individual scores shows a tremendous variation 



READING ABILITY 157 

among the pupils of the several grades. Thus the aver- 
ages for the third grade range from 1.18 to 3.94 words 
per second; those of the fourth from 0.37 to 5.78; those 
of the fifth from 0.78 to"5.01; those of the sixth from 
0.62 to 3.68; those of the seventh from 0.78 to 4.55; 
and those of the eighth from 0.78 to 5.73. Because of 
such variation — as Waldo points out — many pupils of the 
lower grades surpass in reading ability a considerable pro- 
portion of the pupils in the upper grades. In this case 
29.5 per cent of the pupils in the fifth grade read more 
rapidly than did the average of the eighth grade; 36.1 
per cent read more rapidly than did the average of the 
seventh grade; and 46.6 per cent read more rapidly than 
did the average of the sixth grade. 

Oberholtzer's investigation. — Oberholtzer * measured 
the reading ability of a large number of children at Tulsa, 
Oklahoma, The reading materials were selected from 
readers intended for the different grades. The scores for 
approximately 1000 of the children tested — in terms of 
the average number of words read per second — are : 



GRADE 


SILENT 


READING 


ORAL READING 


III 


2.3 words 


2.1 words 


IV 


2.6 


u 


2.3 " 


V 


3.1 


it 


2.4 " 


VI 


3.9 


u 


2.8 " 


VII 


4.7 


u 


3.1 " 


VIII 


4.8 


u 


3.9 " 



Oberholtzer concludes on the strength of these scores 
that the rate of reading tends to increase rather gradually 
from grade to grade. The scores for comprehension show 

See "Selected References" (11). 



158 THE READING PROCESS 

much the same tendency. On the whole there was in evi- 
dence a rather direct relationship between rate of reading 
and comprehension — the rapid reader being distinctly 
superior in his grasp of content. 

Courtis's investigation. — Courtis * measured the read- 
ing ability of several thousand children and a number 
of adults by means of his Standard Tests in English. He 
distinguishes between normal and careful silent reading. 
In the case of the former the children read the real con- 
tinuation of a story — a continuation which was of inter- 
est to them, because they had just attempted to compose 
it themselves. Immediately after the reading — without 
having been told so in advance — they were given a com- 
prehension test which measured their ability to remember 
whether or not certain words had occurred in the selec- 
tion. In connection with the latter — the careful reading 
— the children read a third part of the same story, with 
the knowledge this time that they would be called upon 
to reproduce what they had read. On the strength of 
the results which he obtained, Courtis submitted the fol- 
lowing standard scores — expressed in terms of the median 
number of words read per second — for the several grades 
and the two types of reading: 



GRADE 


NORMAL READING 


CAREFUL READING 


IV 


2.6 words 


1.7 words 


V 


3.0 


a 


2.2 


u 


VI 


3.7 


u 


2.9 


tt 


VII 


4.2 


a 


3.0 


tt 


VIII 


4.3 


u 


3.3 


it 


Adults 


5.3 


it 


3.0 


it 



See "Selected References" (2). 



READING ABILITY 159 

He points out that the two types of reading evidently 
follow different laws of development — the rate of the 
former improving rather gradually from grade to grade 
and even through the high school years while that of the 
latter shows little improvement beyond the sixth grade. 
Like all previous investigators, Courtis calls attention to 
the tremendous range of individual variation which was 
in evidence among his readers. 

The Courtis tests for careful silent reading were later 
given to approximately 1600 pupils — distributed through 
grades five to eight inclusive — in the Salt Lake City 
schools. The scores for rate and comprehension — the 
former expressed in terms of the median number of 
words read per second and the latter in terms of the 
percentage of points correctly reproduced — were as fol- 
lows: 

GRADE RATE COMPREHENSION 

V 3.18 words 74.0 per cent 

VI 3.53 " 77.1 " " 

VII 3.65 " 72.8 " " 

VIII 3.48 " 79.3 " " 

It will be observed that these scores add further con- 
firmation to Courtis's position that the rate of careful 
reading does not increase appreciably beyond the sixth 
grade. The four grades read at nearly the same rate, 
and their comprehension scores vary but little. The range 
of individual variation was, however, very marked. In a 
typical fifth grade class the rates varied from 1.33 to 
6.33 words per second; in the sixth and seventh grades 
the ranges extended from 1.00 to 6.33 words per second; 



160 THE READING PROCESS 

and in the eighth it extended from 1.66 to 6.33 words 
per second. 

Starch's standard scores. — Starch * measured the silent 
reading ability of 3511 pupils and thereupon computed 
standard scores of efficiency in rate and comprehension. 
The selections which were read by the pupils were chosen 
from graded readers. Comprehension was measured by 
having pupils reproduce as nearly verbatim as possible 
what they had read. The standard rate scores and the 
standard comprehension scores — the former expressed in 
terms of the average number of words that were read per 
second and the latter expressed in terms of the average 
number of words that were correctly reproduced — are as 
follows : 



GRADE 


RATE 


COMPREHENSION 


I 


1.5 words 


15 points 


II 


1.8 


a 


20 " 


III 


2.1 


u 


24 " 


IV 


2.4 


a 


•28 " 


V 


2.8 


u 


33 " 


VI 


3.2 


iC 


38 " 


VII 


3.6 


a 


45 " 


VIII 


4.0 


a 


50 " 



It will be observed that these scores represent a pro- 
gressive improvement from grade to grade in both rate 
and comprehension. The range of individual variation 
was very striking — so much so that the slowest and the 
most rapid readers were distributed over all the grades 
— with the possible exception of the first and second. 

*See "Selected References" (14). 



READING ABILITY 161 

Scores obtained through Kansas Silent Reading Tests. 

— Monroe reports the results of 100,000 children — dis- 
tributed over one hundred and sixty cities — whose reading 
ability was measured by means of the Kansas Silent 
Reading Tests. In these tests rate and comprehension 
are expressed in a single score. The median scores are 
as follows: 

GRADE SCORE 

III 5.3 

IV 9.5 
V 13.2 

VI 13.9 

VII 16.2 

VIII 19.2 

IX 22.9 

X 25.6 

XI 26.5 

XII 29.7 

Monroe attributes the rather progressive improvement 
from grade to grade to the fact that these tests measure 
comprehension rather than rate of reading. 

Monroe's standard scores. — Elsewhere Monroe 1 pre- 
sents standard scores which he computed after measur- 
ing the reading ability of more than 30,000 children by 
means of his own standardized silent reading tests. In 
these tests rate and comprehension are represented by 
separate scores — scores which are, however, little more 
than ratios since they do not directly represent the 
amount read per unit of time' or the actual percentages 
of materials or points reproduced. The scores are as 
follows : 

"See "Selected References" (10). 



162 THE READING PROCESS 



GRADE 


RATE 


COMPREHENSION 


III 


57 


8.7 


IV 


83 


15.0 


V 


91 


20.0 


VI 


96 


21.0 


VII 


98 


25.0 


VIII 


108 


28.0 


IX 


87 


22.0 


X 


81 


25.0 


XI 


88 


26.4 


XII 


89 


27.0 



It will be observed that there is practically no improve- 
ment in rate beyond the sixth grade. 

McLeod's investigation. — An investigation undertaken 
by McLeod * — primarily for the purpose of determining 
"the influence of increasing difficulty of reading material 
upon rate, errors, and comprehension in oral reading" — 
throws considerable light upon the development of oral 
reading ability. In all 238 pupils, distributed through 
grades one to eight inclusive, were tested. Gray's Stand- 
ard Oral Reading Test was used. Comprehension was 
measured by means of questions. McLeod found that 
there was a very rapid increase in the rate of oral reading 
during the first two grades — the growth from that point 
on being more gradual. Grades three to five read at a 
fairly uniform rate, as did also grades six to eight. The 
difference in the accomplishments of these two groups 
did not exceed one-half word per second. McLeod ex- 
plains these developmental periods on the basis of the 
status of word recognition. He says: 

In the first two grades the child is learning to recognize the sym- 
bols for words which are already a part of his spoken vocabulary. 

a See "Selected References" (9). 



READING ABILITY 163 

His rate of reading in this period improves rapidly for he has but 
the one task of associating printed symbols with familiar word 
sounds. In the third grade his reading vocabulary probably over- 
takes his spoken vocabulary, and the additional struggle with 
meanings interferes with the automatizing of the process of word 
recognition and so holds up for a time further increase in the rate. 
This task of acquiring meanings is prominent also during the 
fourth and fifth grades. The situation is further complicated by 
the fact that the pupil of these grades is being called upon to form 
his habits of silent reading in order to meet the requirements of 
his other studies. The scattering of interests in this way un- 
doubtedly causes a break in the formation of habits in oral reading. 
As the pupil becomes acquainted with more and more words and 
their meanings, and the habit of silent reading becomes more or 
less fixed, opportunity is given for another increase in the rate of 
oral reading. This increase we find in the sixth grade. After the 
increase at that time, the training of the school and the physio- 
logical limitations of the organs of speech prevent further large 
increases for material which is read with ease. For such material 
the pupils of these grades approximate their adult rate. 

W. S. Gray's investigations. — W. S. Gray * has made a 
number of elaborate investigations of reading ability — 
both oral and silent. Several thousand children were 
examined while his standard tests for oral and silent read- 
ing were being developed. More recently additional thou- 
sands have been tested — for the most part in connection 
with school surveys. In the case of oral reading only rate 
and accuracy — accuracy in word recognition and pronun- 
ciation — have been measured, the results being expressed 
in one score. In the case of silent reading, rate and 
comprehension have been measured — the rate score being 
expressed in terms of the average number of words read 
per second, and the comprehension score in terms of the 

*See "Selected References" (5). 



164 



THE READING PROCESS 



pupil's average attainment in connection with two tests 
for comprehension. 

Gray's scores are usually represented in graphic form. 
Chart I shows the average oral reading scores for sev- 




Chart I. Average Oral Reading Scores for 10,526 St. Louis 
Pupils and for 2193 Cleveland Pupils 

era! large city school systems. The relative positions of 
the vertical lines — one for each grade — represent the 
levels of expectation for the several grades, more being 
expected of each successive grade. The reading scores — 



READING ABILITY 

as determined by the test — are indicated by the points at 
which the curves intercept these lines. It will be observed 
that oral reading ability improves rather rapidly during 
the first two or three grades and thereafter much more 
gradually. The results of another investigation — re- 
ported by Gray — indicate that the high school and col- 
lege periods are characterized by the same gradual im- 
provement as the middle and upper grades in the elemen- 
tary school. In discussing these tendencies, Gray says: 

It is in harmony with natural expectation that the first two or 
three years of school work should be characterized by rapid growth 
in reading ability. The pupil at this time is devoting a great deal 
of his attention to the acquisition of reading habits. Every lesson 
brings the pupil in contact with new words, and he has abundant 
opportunity to associate the sight symbols with their proper pro- 
nunciation. The words which are learned at this time are usually 
within the comprehension of the pupil, and word mastery can 
progress rapidly, uncomplicated by the problem of mastering mean- 
ings. Furthermore, the power of word analysis develops so rapidly 
during the second and third grades that the pupil is able to pro- 
nounce at sight most of the common words by the beginning of the 
fourth grade. 

During the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades silent reading becomes 
the dominant type of reading. Ability to read is now measured 
largely in terms of a pupil's ability to master the thought of what 
he reads. The pronunciation of a large proportion of the words 
is more or less familiar. Hence the opportunities for increase in 
oral reading ability are much fewer than during the preceding 
period, and we should naturally expect progress to be less marked. 
On the other hand, there are factors operating which tend to 
increase the pupil's ability in oral reading. The subject matter 
which is read brings the pupil daily into new fields of thought 
and in contact with some new words. In order to use these words 
in class discussion or even in oral reading, the pupil is constantly 
analyzing words or looking up their pronunciation in the diction- 
ary. Furthermore, the pronunciation of partly familiar words be- 
comes more rapid and accurate and the words of a selection are 



166 THE READING PROCESS 

grouped together more economically and effectively. All of these 
factors result in regular progress in oral reading during the inter- 
mediate grades, although the rate* of progress is less rapid than in 
the lower grades. 

By the time a student reaches the high school period his reading 
habits are definitely established. The subject matter studied at this 
time repeats for the most part the reading vocabulary which the 
pupil has already mastered. Technical terms peculiar to certain 
subjects, proper names, foreign derivatives, etc., are encountered, 
however, from time to time, and the pupil is forced to continue 
his study of words. Hence, there is some progress from year to 
year through the high school and college period, measured largely 
by the scope of the student's general reading and by the character 
of his specialized work. 1 

Chart II shows the silent reading scores for several 
large city school systems. Since the silent reading test 
consists of three selections, "adapted respectively to the 
interests and reading capacity of second and third grade 
pupils; fourth, fifth, and sixth grade pupils; and seventh 
and eighth grade pupils" — three corresponding ordinates 
are used in plotting the curves. For the second and third 
grades the curves are, therefore, to be interpreted in 
terms of the figures at the left of the diagram; for grades 
four to six inclusive in terms of those on the dotted line 
on the left ; and for the seventh and eighth grades in terms 
of those on the dotted line on the right. In this way the 
curves bring out very clearly the development of rate in 
silent reading from grade to grade. It will be observed 
that progress is most rapid during the first four or five 
grades, and that it is negligible beyond the sixth grade. 
Another investigation in which the reading ability of high 
school and college students was measured shows that 
there is but slight improvement in the rate of silent read- 

1 Studies of Elementary School Reading, pp. 143-144. 



READING ABILITY 



167 



ing during the high school and college periods. Gray 
again feels that these tendencies — especially in so far as 
they concern the elementary and intermediate grades — 
are in accordance with natural expectations. During the 
second and third grades progress is rapid because the 
"pupil is developing rapidly in his ability to recognize 




Chart II. Rates in Silent Reading for 8928 St. Louis Pupils, 
for 1831 Cleveland Pupils, and for 2654 Pupils of 13 Other 
Cities 

words at sight. As the ability to recognize words in- 
creases the power to recognize larger and larger units at a 
single fixation of the eye develops, with the result that 
during the intermediate grades the eye moves along the 
lines at a constantly increasing rate," so much so, that 
"the maximum development for careful reading is ap- 
proximated in the sixth grade." * 

*Op. eft., p. 145. 



168 



THE READING PROCESS 



Chart III shows the scores for comprehension or quality 
in silent reading. In general these curves indicate that 
ability in comprehension develops far more gradually 
through the grades than does rate. As Gray points out, 
improvement is very rapid during the second grade; dur- 



70 



60 



50 



40 



30 



20 



Chart III. Average Quality Scores in Silent Reading for 8928 
St. Louis Pupils, for 1831 Cleveland Pupils, and for 2654 
Pupils of 13 Other Cities 





i 
i 

i 

i 

i 

48i2 






27jl,' 


--"■*"" 




1 
1 

i 
1 

1 

38j2 


^ 


^^ 


" 17J1 / 


^ 




1 
\ 
1 

1 __ — 

1 

28i2^ 


^ 

^ 




! / 

! / 
• / 

y 




• 


f 

1 
1 
1 


^" 


^-' 


/ 
/ i 




S 


i 

\ 
i 

j_ 


,*» 








2 


i i 


; 


5 ( 


3 


7 8 



ing the third and fourth it is somewhat less marked; 
and from that point on there is continuous improvement 
even through the high school period as shown by other 
studies. "The rapid improvement in the quality of silent 
reading at the beginning may be explained in part by the 



READING ABILITY 169 

fact that the pupil improves rapidly in his ability to use 
reading as a tool for thought. Habits of attention and 
study are being developed and refined. The pupil's fund 
of experience is being rapidly enlarged, with the result 
that he is able to comprehend the meaning of what he 
reads more adequately." Certain irregularities in the 
quality curves — the uncertain progress during the second 
and third grades for example — Gray feels, may be "ex- 
plained in part on the basis of the relative emphasis which 
is given to speed and quality/' — one being stressed to the 
exclusion of the other. During the fourth, fifth, sixth, 
and seventh grades progress in comprehension is to be 
expected. "It is just at this time that the pupil learns 
to use reading in a large way as a tool to enlarge his 
world of meanings. He reads copiously and with pur- 
pose. The natural result should be increased power in 
getting the thought of the printed page. As the pupil 
continues through the grammar grades and in the high 
school, his methods of study are improved," and in conse- 
quence the power of comprehension continues to grow. 1 

Like other investigators, Gray found marked individual 
variation in reading ability. In Cleveland, for example, 
"in many third grade classes pupils were tested who 
ranged in ability from those unable to read as well as an 
average first grade pupil to those able to surpass an aver- 
age eighth grade pupil. In the intermediate and upper 
grades there were a number of pupils who were still 
unable to pronounce at sight some of the simpler words, 
and they ranked no higher in achievement than average 
first or second grade pupils. In each of the grades above 

1 Studies of Elementary School Reading, pp. 146-147. 



170 THE READING PROCESS 

the second there were many pupils who made a very high 
score and for whom it is doubtful whether continued daily 
drill in oral reading is longer necessary." 1 

Beyond this, reading achievement was found to vary 
widely from school to school within given school systems. 
In the case of Cleveland special analyses and comparisons 
were made to determine the extent to which reading effi- 
ciency might be influenced by such factors as nationality, 
sex, and methods of teaching beginning reading. Nation- 
ality was found to exert some influence during the first 
three grades — children of American parents excelling all 
but Jewish children up to that point. In the sex com- 
parisons the girls were found to be slightly superior. A 
comparison of the reading achievement of pupils taught 
by the Ward and the Aldine methods respectively brought 
to light no important differences. 

In order to throw more light upon the relation between 
reading rate and comprehension in silent reading, Gray 
made several analyses. In the first place the rate scores 
for each grade were divided into three equal divisions- 
rapid, medium, and slow. The comprehension scores were 
divided in similar fashion into poor, medium, and good. 
The individual records of 1831 Cleveland pupils were then 
compared as to their respective ranks for rate and com- 
prehension — each reader necessarily falling into one of 
nine classes. The percentages of individuals falling into 
the several classes were as follows : rapid rate and good 
comprehension, 14; rapid rate and medium comprehen- 
sion, 11; rapid rate and poor comprehension, 8; medium 
rate and good comprehension, 12; medium rate and 

1 Studies of Elementary School Reading, pp. 123-124. 



READING ABILITY 171 

medium comprehension, 11; medium rate and poor com- 
prehension, 10; slow rate and good comprehension, 8; 
slow rate and medium comprehension, 11; and slow rate 
and poor comprehension, 15. 

This distribution, Gray points out, emphasizes the fact 
that "good readers are usually not slow and poor readers 
are usually not fast/' However, "it is evidently not safe 
to lay down any absolute rule. The average teacher is 
confronted with pupils who might fall in any one or all 
of the nine classes mentioned. There are good readers 
who are rapid and there are good readers who are slow. 
There are rapid readers who retain much of what they 
read and there are rapid readers who retain little. The 
points of greatest significance revealed by the table are 
the facts that high rate and good quality are more com- 
monly related than rapid rate and poor quality." x 

King's investigations. — King 2 has recently made sev- 
eral investigations, the chief aim of which was to deter- 
mine the relationship between rate and comprehension in 
silent reading. The subjects examined were college stu- 
dents and the materials read were expository selections 
from a current periodical. In connection with the first 
investigation ninety-three individuals read a given selec- 
tion — all being "requested to stop after five or six of the 
fastest readers had finished." The results showed a wide 
difference in the rates of reading — some reading five col- 
umns in the time that others read the entire article of 
twelve columns." An analysis of the relationship between 
rate and comprehension showed that "the fastest twenty- 

1 Op. cit., p. 134. 

2 See "Selected References" (8). 



172 THE READING PROCESS 

five per cent of the entire group of ninety- three had a per- 
centage of accuracy" — in comprehension — "of 50.2 per 
cent; the slowest twenty-five per cent had a percentage 
of accuracy of 48 per cent; the middle fifty per cent — 
those who read at a medium rate — had a percentage of 
accuracy of 46.5 per cent." In discussing these results, 
King points out that there appears to be "little if any 
difference in reading efficiency if subjects read at their 
normal rate. The fastest readers have the advantage of 
covering more ground — nearly twice as much — and of 
having gained more points absolutely than the slow and 
the quality of their reading is slightly better than that 
of the slowest group." 1 

The results of two investigations carried on somewhat 
later under similar conditions except that the exactions 
for comprehension were somewhat more severe — favor 
the slow reader. In the first, "the lowest fourth in speed 
had an average percentage of accuracy of 67 and a median 
of 71. The fastest fourth of the readers attained an aver- 
age accuracy of 60 and a median of 61. The second quar- 
ter in speed had an average accuracy of 54, and the third 
quarter" — the one next to the lowest in speed — "averaged 
64 in accuracy." The coefficient of correlation — between 
rate and comprehension — computed by the Pearson for- 
mula adapted to rank-differences was 27. In the second 
of these investigations — in which practically the same 
group of students participated — "the average percentage 
of accuracy of the fastest quartile was 41.8" and that 
of the lowest 53. The coefficient of correlation — com- 
puted as before — was 47. King concludes that in "this 

1 School and Society, IV: 830-834. 



READING ABILITY 173 

sort of tests the rapid reader is considerably less efficient" 
in comprehension than the slow. 2 

Summary. — Having reviewed some of the most impor- 
tant investigations of reading ability, we may briefly 
summarize their bearings upon such problems as indi- 
vidual variation, the development of rate in oral read- 
ing and in silent reading, the development of comprehen- 
sion, and the relationship between rate and comprehen- 
sion. 

Individual variation. — All investigators point to marked 
individual variation — so much so in fact, that there can 
be no doubt regarding its universality. Furthermore, the 
fact that this variation asserts itself so persistently — 
under systems of instruction varying widely in efficiency 
— shows that we are face to face with a given phe- 
nomenon — one largely determined by native capacity. 
This creates no end of problems for the school. And 
the situation is of course aggravated by the fact that 
similar variations are in evidence in connection with 
practically all other forms of human behavior. The new 
science of educational psychology has demonstrated this 
very clearly during recent years. With all this, the 
rigidity of our graded lock-step system continues much 
as formerly — especially in the first six years of the child's 
school life. In consequence large groups of children 
whose reading abilities vary widely continue to receive 
identical instruction — a type of instruction which bene- 
fits probably little more than half of the group since it is 
too advanced for some and too elementary for others. 
It is scarcely necessary to point out that such practices 

1 School and Society, VI: 203-204. 



174 THE READING PROCESS 

would lead to bankruptcy in the world of practical busi- 
ness affairs. 

Certain adjustments are, therefore, inevitable. Within 
reasonable limits the iron-bound requirements of group 
instruction must be abandoned. We must see to it that 
pupils of exceptional ability will no longer be compelled 
to waste their time with group exercises which they have 
long since mastered. In addition, pupils who are not- 
making satisfactory progress in reading must be sub- 
jected to clinical examination in order that their peculiar 
difficulties may be discovered and the character of sub- 
sequent instruction adapted to their needs. 

The development of rate in oral reading. — The results 
regarding the development of rate in oral reading are in 
general agreement. Improvement of rate of oral read- 
ing may be characterized as very rapid during the first 
two or three grades, somewhat more gradual during the 
next two or three, and relatively slight thereafter — prac- 
tically no progress being in evidence during the high 
school and college periods. From the standpoint of in- 
struction this means of course that the lower grades 
constitute the optimal period for the teaching of oral 
reading. 

The development of rate in silent reading. — Two ten- 
dencies are in evidence in the development of rate in 
silent reading. In some cases there appears to be a 
gradual and progressive improvement in rate through the 
elementary and high school grades — and in some instances 
possibly beyond that. In other cases there is rapid im- 
provement in rate during the first five or six grades and 
little thereafter. 



READING ABILITY 175 

t 

Gradual improvement in rate appears to be charac- 
teristic of the so-called normal silent reading — reading in 
which the individual is not held strictly accountable for 
the content although he is to all intents and purposes 
following the thought of the author. Much of our read- 
ing — especially recreational reading — is of this care free 
type. We read narratives, descriptions, expositions, and 
even arguments rapidly and often with so much apprecia- 
tion that an observer would have little difficulty in divin- 
ing the nature of the content from our facial expression, 
and yet, if we were to be interrupted a moment later, the 
chances are that we could give but little account of the 
details which impressed us so only a moment ago. Such 
reading implies a wide grasp and a high degree of general 
intelligence, and it is only natural that it should develop 
gradually with growing experience and increasing 
maturity. 

Rapid improvement during the first five or six grades — 
with little change thereafter — appears to be characteristic 
of the so-called careful reading — reading in which the 
individual is held responsible for much of the content. 
Such reading makes material demands upon memory. 
Its scope — as far as rate is concerned — is, therefore, con- 
fined within relatively narrow limits — limits which may 
be reached early in the pupil's career. Beyond this there 
is of course continued improvement in the individual's 
ability to deal with increasingly complex materials, even 
though there is little change in rate. The results of most 
investigations point to the fifth or sixth grades as the 
periods at which children tend to approximate their 
maximum ability in the rate of careful silent reading. 



176 THE READING PROCESS 

This is probably true under existing methods of teach- 
ing reading. The writer is disposed to believe, however, 
that a maximum rate may be approximated during the 
third and fourth grades, — assuming of course that the 
reading materials fall within the comprehension of the in- 
dividual, and that training in silent reading has been 
stressed. While the first three grades constitute the op- 
timal period for the teaching of oral reading, there is no 
reason why silent reading should be neglected. On the 
contrary — as we shall point out later — there are excel- 
lent reasons why it should receive much attention during 
this period. 

The development of comprehension. — The results of 
investigations uniformly point toward a gradual develop- 
ment of ability in comprehension. During the first two 
grades progress appears to be rapid — fully as rapid as 
progress in rate. This — as Gray points out — is easily ex- 
plained by the fact that the pupil encounters "few words 
the meanings of which are not already familiar to him 
because of their frequent use in everyday conversation." 
During the next two grades there is much less progress. 
In fact, in some cases there may be actual loss in ef- 
ficiency. Again Gray's explanation is pertinent. He 
points out that the pupil meets in these grades many 
words with the meanings of which he is not familiar. 
In consequence improvement in ability to get meanings 
does not keep pace with progress in word recognition. 
During the succeeding grades and the high school period 
— and probably beyond that — there appears to be a pro- 
gressive and continuous improvement in comprehension. 
That the development of ability to get meanings should 



READING ABILITY 177 

be closely correlated with increasing experience and 
growth in maturity is to be expected. 

Relation between rate and comprehension. — Most of 
the earlier investigators were led to believe that the rapid 
reader tends to surpass the slow in comprehension. The 
reading was in those cases for the most part at the in- 
dividual's own natural rate and the subject matter rela- 
tively simple. The results of more recent investigations 
have by no means overthrown this hypothesis. They 
have shown, however, that the relationship between rate 
and comprehension is complex, and that it may vary with 
conditions. Under ordinary conditions when the subject 
matter is not too complex and the demands upon compre- 
hension not too exacting, the advantage is clearly with the 
rapid reader — though perhaps not always with the most 
rapid — and all this notwithstanding the fact that the 
rapid reader covers much more ground than the slow. 
When the reading materials are complex and the demands 
upon comprehension exacting — conditions which resem- 
ble study — the rapid reader may be somewhat less accu- 
rate, as indicated by King's results. The results of some 
of the investigations indicate, further, that the habitual 
rate of reading may in many cases be increased materially 
without lessening comprehension. Just how far this may 
be done remains to be determined experimentally. 

SELECTED KEFEKENCES 

1. Abell, Adelaide M. — "Kapid Beading : Advantages and Meth- 

ods"; Educational Review, VIII, 283-286. 

2. Courtis, S. A. — "Standard Tests in English"; Elementary 

School Journal XIV, 374-392. 



178 THE READING PROCESS 

2. Courtis, S. A. — "Standards in Rates of Reading"; Fourteenth 

Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 
Pt. I, pp. 44-58. 

3. Dearborn, W. F. — "Psychology of Reading"; Columbia Univer- 

sity Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology, XIV, 
No. 1. 

4. Gray, C. T. — "Types of Reading Ability as Exhibited through 

Test and Laboratory Experiments"; Supplementary Educa- 
tional Monographs, I, No. 5. 

5. Gray, W. S. — "Studies of Elementary School Reading through 

Standardized Tests"; Supplementary Educational Mono- 
graphs, I, No. 1. 

6. Huey, E. B. — Psychology and Pedagogy of Beading; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1908. 

7. Judd, Chas. H. — Measuring the Work of the Public Schools; 

The Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, 1916. 

8. King, I. — "Comparison of the Efficiency of Slow and Rapid 

Readers"; School and Society, IV, 830-834 and VI, 203-204. 

9. McLeod, L. S. — "Influence of Increasing Difficulty in Reading 

Material upon Rate, Error, and Comprehension in Oral 
Reading"; Elementary School Journal, XVIII, 523-532. 

10. Monroe, W. S. — "A Report on the Use of the Kansas Silent 

Reading Tests with Over 100,000 Children"; Journal of 
Educational Psychology, IX, 600-608. 
"Standardized Silent Reading Tests"; Journal of Edu- 
cational Psychology, IX, 303-312. 

11. Oberholtzer, E. E. — "Testing Efficiency in Reading in the 

Grades" ; Elementary School Journal, XV, 313-322. 

12. Quantz, J. A. — "Problems in the Psychology of Reading"; 

Psychological Review Monograph Supplements, II, No. 1. 

13. Romanes, G. J. — Mental Evolution in Animals; D. Appleton 

and Company, 1884. 

14. Starch, D. — "The Measurement of Efficiency in Reading"; 

Journal of Educational Psychology, VI, 1-24. 

15. Waldo, K. D. — "Tests in Sycamore Schools"; Elementary 

School Journal, XV, 251-268. 



CHAPTER IX 

ORAL AND SILENT READING — A COMPARISON 

Oral reading and tradition. — Oral reading instruction 
has long received undue attention in our schools. Train- 
ing for effective silent reading on the other hand has been 
neglected — and this, in spite of the fact that we read for 
the most part silently for the purpose of getting the 
thought of the printed page. In general, this lack of 
correspondence between the aims of teaching reading and 
the needs of everyday life is a good example of the oft 
repeated failure on the part of the school to adapt itself 
to changing conditions. 

There was a time when oral reading — like the lecture 
platform — played a more important role in life. In- 
deed, the farther back we go in point of time the more 
obvious this fact becomes. Not only do books become 
scarcer and scarcer, but those who are able to read grow 
fewer and fewer. Under such conditions oral reading 
ability was in the very nature of the case at a premium — 
meeting, as it did, a vital need in the life of the times. 
However, with the passing of time conditions have 
changed. The gradual spread of universal and compul- 
sory education has reduced illiteracy to a minimum and 
has created countless new interests. The press, because 
of its marvelous development and perfection — reenforced 

179 



180 THE READING PROCESS 

in turn by the spread of libraries — has placed at our dis- 
posal such a wealth of reading material that even the 
masses may to-day read to their hearts' content. And for 
the most part the exigencies of the situation demand rapid 
silent reading. 

Objective character of oral reading. — In part the long 
continued popularity of oral reading instruction must 
be attributed to the fact that it is without question a 
far more objective form of behavior than silent reading. 
Teachers have found it a relatively simple matter to check 
and evaluate its quality — at least as far as pronunciation 
and expression go — certainly much more so than in the 
case of silent reading. For the primary grades this ob- 
jective character is obviously of very great importance. 
In fact if word mastery is to be properly directed, oral 
reading must of necessity occupy an important place in 
these grades. By the close of this period, however, pupils 
should be practically autonomous in the matter of word 
mastery. Thereafter the chief aim of reading instruction 
is to develop efficiency in thought getting. This — it must 
be borne in mind — may be accomplished most effectively 
through training in silent reading. 

Oral reading and training in expression. — In many 
cases oral reading instruction has been — and still is — 
justified on the assumption that it would afford valuable 
training in oral expression. That there is need of such 
training is obvious. Oral communication plays too im- 
portant a part in human life, and its improvement is too 
dependent upon directed practice to be neglected by the 
school. That oral reading exercises — as ordinarily con- 
ducted — contribute much to training in expression may 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 181 

well be questioned. That they might be utilized for 
this purpose to some extent — through a modified pro- 
cedure — will be pointed out later. For the most part, 
however, oral expression should doubtless be taught 
in connection with language — rather than reading — ex- 
ercises. 

Recent criticism of oral reading instruction. — As indi- 
cated above, the excessive emphasis upon oral reading 
was long accepted as a matter of course. More recently, 
however, there has been in evidence a growing disposition 
to criticize this practice. During the last few years the 
challenge — at first largely theoretical — has been tremen- 
dously reenforced by the experimental investigation of 
the reading process. Some of the studies discussed in the 
last chapter threw considerable light upon the differences 
between oral and silent reading. They indicated very 
clearly that one might read much more rapidly silently 
than orally. Quantz's subjects averaged for silent reading 
from 3.5 to 8.8 words per second and for ordinary oral 
reading only from 2.6 to 3.9 words. The averages for 
Huey's readers ranged at the ordinary rate from 2.5 to 9.8 
words per second for the silent reading and from 2.2 to 
4.7 words for the oral ; at the maximum rate the averages 
for the former ranged from 3.5 to 13.5 words per second 
and those for the latter from 2.9 to 6.4 words. Ober- 
holtzer's results showed that children — even under exist- 
ing methods of instruction — have a tendency to read 
more rapidly silently than orally and that this difference 
increases from the lower to the upper grades. On the 
whole, C. T. Gray's subjects also read silently more 
rapidly, Furthermore, W. S. Gray's results pointed very 



182 THE READING PROCESS 

clearly to optimal periods for the teaching of oral and 
silent reading. 

Investigations intended to compare the efficiency of 
oral and silent reading. — A number of investigations 
have been undertaken with the express purpose of com- 
paring the efficiency of oral and silent reading. The com- 
parison is usually made on the basis of rate and compre- 
hension. 

Pintner's investigation. — Pintner 1 reports an investi- 
gation with twenty-three fourth grade children. Eight 
tests were given for oral and eight for silent reading, the 
pupils reading in each case at their ordinary rate during 
an interval of two minutes. The reading selections were 
stories from "Arabian Nights." In the case of the silent 
reading the number of lines read during the two minute 
interval ranged from 10 to 89, — the average being 28; in 
the case of the oral reading the number of lines read 
ranged from 9 to 31, — the average being 20. The num- 
ber of points correctly reproduced in connection with the 
tests for comprehension ranged from 6 to 18 for the silent 
reading and from 5 to 15 for the oral. These results, as 
Pintner indicates, show that children not only read more 
silently than orally but retain more as well. 

Pintner and Galliland's investigation. — Later Pintner 
and Galliland 2 made a more elaborate investigation. The 
aim was to compare the efficiency of oral and silent read- 
ing at different levels of individual development. Accord- 
ingly 130 individuals — 30 third and fourth grade pupils, 
30 fifth and sixth grade pupils, 20 seventh and eighth 

"See "Selected References" (6). 
58 See "Selected References" (5). 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 183 

grade pupils, 20 high school students, and 30 college 
students — were examined. The materials read were se- 
lected with special reference to the interests and the 
abilities of the several groups, each passage representing 
approximately fifty words and seven distinct ideas. In 
order to secure a simple index for reading efficiency, the 
number of points reproduced in the case of any one selec- 
tion was divided by the number of seconds required for 
the reading of the selection, — this giving "the percentage 
of points reproduced per second of the reading time." 
The indices for the several groups and the two types of 
reading were as follows: 



GRADES 


ORAL READING 


SILENT READING 


3-4 


23.2 


23.2 


5-6 


26.2 


27.0 


7-8 


33.6 


34.2 


igh School 


23.6 


25.2 


College 


33.5 


38.4 



It will be observed that there is no appreciable difference 
between the values for the two types of reading. Pintner 
and Galliland conclude that this tends to show that under 
existing conditions — oral rather than silent reading in- 
struction being emphasized — children are not likely to 
develop efficiency in silent reading until they reach the 
high school period where more extensive silent reading is 
imperative. Also, they point to the significant fact that 
oral reading in spite of the emphasis which it receives in 
these grades shows no superiority in either rate or com- 
prehension. 

Mead's investigations. — Mead 1 also reports several in- 

x See "Selected References" (4). 



184 THE READING PROCESS 

vestigations. He was particularly interested in compar- 
ing the efficiency of oral and silent reading from the 
standpoint of comprehension. In connection with the 
first of these investigations 112 Cincinnati pupils — five 
classes in all — were examined. Six two minute tests 
were given for each type of reading. The reading selec- 
tions were chosen from "Alice in Wonderland." Mead 
found that all but one of these five classes read a greater 
number of lines silently than orally and that each class 
reproduced a greater number of possible points in silent 
than in oral reading. 

During the next two years Mead tested 240 additional 
pupils — representing seventeen classes distributed from 
the third to the tenth grade. The conditions were identi- 
cal with the above except that the pupils read for one 
instead of two minutes. In general "fifteen out of the 
seventeen classes" and "70 per cent of the children taken 
separately did better by the silent method of reading 
than by the oral." Mead concludes, therefore, that pupils 
"can gather more thoughts by the silent method than by 
the oral" and that much of the present excess emphasis 
upon oral reading in our schools should be transferred to 
silent reading. 

W. S. Gray's investigation. — Gray * made an investi- 
gation of the oral and silent reading rates of 471 pupils 
and students at the School of Education of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago. In the case of the oral reading, para- 
graph 3 of his Oral Reading Scale was read, and in the 
case of the silent reading, the selections were from his 
Silent Reading Tests. The results showed that the sec- 

*See "Selected References" (2). 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 185 

ond and third grades read somewhat more rapidly orally 
than silently. But throughout the other grades and the 
high school and college periods, the rate of silent reading 
was superior to that of the oral. Gray considers the fact 
that second and third grade pupils read more rapidly 
orally than silently significant. He feels that the first 
three grades represent the optimal period for the teaching 
of oral reading. Beyond this point continued emphasis 
upon oral reading may actually have "a retarding influ- 
ence upon the rate of silent reading." 

Judd and Gray's investigation in Cleveland. — Judd 
and Gray in making a preliminary investigation of the 
reading ability of the pupils in 44 Cleveland schools 
made extensive rate tests for both oral and silent reading. 
The passages read were chosen from graded readers. In 
terms of the number of lines read per minute the results 
for the two types of reading and for the several grades 
were as follows: 



GRADES 


LINES READ 


LINES READ 




ORALLY 


SHiENTLY 


2 


13 


16 


3 


16 


22 


4 


14 


21 


5 


15 


20 


6 


16 


21 


7 


16 


21 


8 


16 


21 



It will be observed that the rate for silent reading is 
materially higher than that for the oral. "The fact that 
there is not a greater difference in the upper grades," 
Judd holds, "is undoubtedly due in part to the influence 



186 THE READING PROCESS 

of school training. So constantly are children drilled in 
oral reading that their habits of recognition come to be 
controlled by this dominant form of instruction. Their 
natural tendency to cultivate rapid silent reading is, 
therefore, constantly counteracted by rigid school drill in 
the slow oral form of reading." 1 

A comparison of the ranges over which the oral and 
silent reading rates of pupils are distributed shows a 
marked tendency toward a close grouping in the case of 
the oral and a wide spreading out in the case of the silent. 
In other words pupils read much more nearly at the same 
rate in oral than in silent reading. In part Judd accounts 
for this condition by the fact that "the rate of oral 
reading is controlled in a measure by the physiological 
rate of movement possible in the vocal acts involved," 
and in part he feels that it is due to the fact that every 
member of a class in oral reading is drilled "under meth- 
ods which are uniform." Finally he points to the fact — 
repeatedly demonstrated by scientific investigations — 
that silent reading rates may be developed which "are 
three or even four times as fast as the rate of oral read- 
ing" and stresses the necessity of placing much greater 
emphasis upon "productive silent reading." 2 

Schmidt's comparison of oral and silent reading on 
the basis of eye movement. — As indicated in an earlier 
chapter, Schmidt 3 investigated the eye movements of 
eighty-three individuals — forty-five adults, seventeen 
high school students, and twenty-one elementary school 

1 Measuring the Results of the Public Schools. 

2 Op. cit. 

3 See "Selected References" (7). 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 187 

pupils — for both oral and silent reading. The two types 
of reading were compared largely on the basis of such 
factors as the average number of pauses per line, the 
average duration of the pauses, and the average fixation 
or reading time per line. 

The adults required on an average from 6.5 to 11.3 
pauses per line when reading orally — the average being 
8.2; and from 4.7 to 10.8 pauses when reading silently — 
the average being 6.5; the high school students required 
from 7.2 to 10.2 pauses per line when reading orally — the 
average being 8.6; and from 5.0 to 9.6 pauses when 
reading silently — the average being 7.0; and the elemen- 
tary pupils required from 6.1 to 11.5 pauses per line when 
reading orally — the average being 8.1 ; and from 4.1 to 9.3 
pauses when reading silently— the average being 6.3. 

The average duration of the pauses varied for the 
adults from .230 to .520 second when reading orally — 
the average being .380; and from .214 to .470 second 
when reading silently — the average being .308; for the 
high school students it varied from .306 to .512 second 
when reading orally — the average being .372; and from 
.244 to .414 second when reading silently — the average 
being .311; and for the elementary pupils it varied from 
.300 to .524 second when reading orally — the average 
being .398; and from .264 to .438 second when reading 
silently — the average being .314. 

The average perception or reading time per line varied 
in the case of the adults from 1.70 to 4.05 seconds when 
reading orally — the average being 3.13; and from 1.14 to 
3.68 seconds when reading silently — the average being 
2.01 ; in the case of the high school students it varied from 



188 THE READING PROCESS 

2.35 to 4.17 seconds when reading orally — the average 
toeing 3.20; and from 1.37 to 3.36 seconds when reading 
silently — the average being 2.22; and in the case of the 
elementary pupils it varied from 2.21 to 4.45 seconds 
when reading orally — the average being 3.23; and from 
1.18 to 2.96 seconds when reading silently — the average 
being 1.97. 

It will be observed that oral reading makes without 
exception much heavier demands than does silent read- 
ing. It requires on an average approximately 25 per cent 
more pauses than silent reading. Also, the oral reading 
pause is fully 25 per cent longer than the silent reading 
pause. This means of course that the average perception 
or reading time per line — this being the product of the 
number and the duration of the pauses — will be approxi- 
mately 50 per cent longer in oral than in silent reading. 
It must be borne in mind, further, that averages always 
tend to conceal individual phenomena — phenomena 
which are often of very great importance. Thus a de- 
tailed examination of Schmidt's results shows that some 
individuals make practically no distinction between oral 
and silent reading. They require as many and as long 
pauses for the one as for the other. On the other hand, 
there are those who read nearly three times as fast 
silently as orally — as shown by the average perception or 
reading time per line. 

The remaining individuals are distributed between 
these two extremes. In part this individual variation is 
doubtless due to native differences — differences which 
cannot be swept away through training. Much of it, 
however, must be attributed to faulty training or to the 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 189 

absence of training. We conclude therefore that there 
are probably few if any normal individuals who cannot 
be trained to read silently at a much higher rate than 
would be desirable in connection with oral reading. 

Schmidt also measured the efficiency of comprehension 
for the two types of reading. A comparison of the results 
brought out no striking differences. The comprehension 
score for the elementary group was slightly higher for 
oral and that of the high school group slightly higher for 
silent reading. Beyond this an analysis of the results 
pointed to the conclusion that the relationship between 
rate and comprehension may not be the same for the two 
types of reading, — the rapid silent reader tending to sur- 
pass the slow in comprehension and the slow oral reader, 
the rapid, 

Needed readjustments in the teaching of reading. — 
The investigations which we have reviewed emphasize 
the fact that oral reading receives altogether too much 
time and attention in our schools. Without exception the 
several investigators have protested against this prac- 
tice. The marked differences between oral and silent 
reading have been stressed. It has been shown that the 
former is a slow and cumbersome process — limited in 
rate because of the demands of articulation, and appar- 
ently inferior in comprehension — especially as the rate is 
increased within these narrow limits. Its only legitimate 
purpose above the primary grades is to convey the 
thought of the printed page to others. This being the 
case, articulation must obviously be controlled and regu- 
lated in accordance with the requirements of a given situ- 
ation — much depending upon the materials and the audi- 



190 THE READING PROCESS 

ence. The best oral reading is, therefore, rarely very- 
rapid reading. 

The limitations imposed upon silent reading are far 
more elastic. Its purpose is to get the thought of the 
printed page. Articulation— inner speech — may, there- 
fore, be greatly reduced and circumscribed. In conse- 
quence the reader may proceed at a rate consistent with 
his power to interpret and assimilate. That maximum 
efficiency in silent reading — as conditioned by the reader's 
ability to interpret and assimilate — is rarely approxi- 
mated at present, we shall point out later in connection 
with the discussion of skimming. 

While the several investigators point out that children 
have a tendency — even under existing conditions — to 
read more rapidly and with superior comprehension 
silently than orally, they make it quite clear that this is 
only an indication of what might be. They are convinced 
that the prevailing emphasis upon oral reading 'instruc- 
tion constitutes a serious hindrance to the development 
of efficiency in silent reading, partly because it monopo- 
lizes the time and the energy which should go to silent 
reading but, more largely, because of the habits of articu- 
lation and plodding which it fastens upon the pupil. 
There is, therefore, obviously need of a thoroughgoing 
reformulation of the aims and purposes and the methods 
of procedure in teaching reading, — not only in general 
but with special reference to particular grades and 
periods. Such a reformulation must in the very nature of 
the case involve readjustments in the emphases given to 
oral and silent reading. 

The place of oral reading, — We have repeatedly indi- 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 191 

cated in our discussion that oral reading instruction — 
when properly administered — will serve different pur- 
poses in the primary and in the elementary grades. In 
the case of the former, it is needed for word mastery and 
is, therefore, quite indispensable. Also, it is during this 
period that the gulf between the ability to articulate and 
the ability to recognize words is least' pronounced. Artic- 
ulation, as Judd points out in his recent monograph, 1 is 
relatively well developed even in the case of first grade 
pupils while word recognition is just entering upon a 
period of rapid and prolonged growth. Sometime during 
the third and fourth grades — and in some cases probably 
earlier — the rate of word recognition comes to surpass the 
possibilities for articulation. In other words, the pupil 
arrives at a level where he can recognize words and grasp 
meanings more rapidly than he can pronounce the words 
orally — not because of any defect in his pronunciation but 
on account of the natural limitations imposed upon 
articulation. 

From this point on, oral reading instruction, if it is to 
serve any definite purpose, must aim very directly at 
training in oral expression. If this is to be accomplished 
in an effective manner, oral reading instruction must have 
at its command a subject matter and a method of pro- 
cedure peculiar to itself. The reading materials should in 
the very nature of the case be relatively simple and of 
such a nature as to lend themselves readily to expression. 
This is obviously not true of many selections in our 
readers at present. Current methods of procedure like- 
wise are in need of a thoroughgoing revision. The whole 

1 Reading: Its Nature and Development. 



192 THE READING PROCESS 

problem is admirably treated — by way of a concrete illus- 
tration — in the following excerpt from the report of a 
recent school survey : 

A departure from the usual procedure in oral reading, and 
one likely to forward this aim, was noted with approval in two 
classrooms. Ordinarily the child who is reading has no audience 
in any true sense. All members of the class have the same book 
and follow more or less attentively the reader's performance. He 
has no very strong motive for clear enunciation or the cultivation 
of a tone that will carry to distant parts of the room. No one 
needs to depend upon his performance in order to understand the 
paragraph or the selection which he reads. In these two instances 
the reading was from an interesting library book, — not the regular 
school reader. Only one copy was available, but the children who 
in succession read from this book had a real audience, and they 
held their audience, too. There was the keenest interest in the 
story, and the attention was absolute. 

If a child failed momentarily to make himself understood, mass 
sentiment made itself felt. The effort of the reader was directed 
toward making the class understand the story. The story was one 
which the class wished to understand, consequently the exercise 
claimed and secured the undivided attention of all. 

The practice of oral reading under conditions which hold the 
reader responsible for making the thought of the author under- 
stood by a real audience ought to be far more common in our 
schools than it now is. 1 

Obviously such oral reading instruction as is found 
above the primary grades should be largely of this type. 
On the other hand, however, it is highly probable that 
the type of expression which the average individual will 
have occasion to use most frequently in his daily social 
intercourse could be taught more advantageously in con- 
nection with the work in English through specific exer- 
cises in oral composition. Oral reading may, therefore, 

1 Cubberley, E. P. : School Organization and Administration, p. 83. 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 193 

be expected to occupy a minor rank on the elementary 
school program — above the primary grades. 

The place of silent reading. — As indicated above, some- 
time during the third and fourth grades, ability in word 
recognition begins to surpass ability in articulation. Since 
we assume that such word recognition implies a mastery 
of the meanings as well as the phonograms, this means of 
course that the individual has arrived at a stage in his 
reading development where he is able to get thought 
from the printed page more rapidly than he can express 
it orally. Obviously if his ability to get meanings from 
the printed page is to be further developed, it must be 
largely through silent reading. This alone represents the 
elasticity demanded by a reading rate constantly increas- 
ing with the growing assimilative powers of the indi- 
vidual. Silent reading should, therefore, in the very 
nature of the case occupy an important place on the ele- 
mentary school program — above the primary grades. 

This does not mean of course that there is to be no 
silent reading instruction in the primary grades. The 
investigation of reading ability through a study of eye 
movement has shown that pupils as far down as the sec- 
ond and third grades require generally fewer pauses and, 
shorter pauses when reading silently than when reading 
orally. With few exceptions, the other investigations — 
those comparing the achievements of oral and silent read- 
ing directly — have shown that the pupils of these grades 
tend to read more rapidly silently than orally. Further- 
more, the evidence of a number of investigators showed 
quite clearly that individuals have a tendency to approxi- 
mate their maximum ability for careful silent reading &t 



194 THE READING PROCESS 

an early age, at least as early as the fifth and sixth grades 
and probably in many cases much earlier. 

This leads us to the conclusion then that training in 
silent reading should begin early. It may well receive 
considerable attention in the primary grades — and this in 
spite of the fact that these grades represent the optimal 
period for instruction in oral reading. The two may 'be 
cultivated side by side. During the succeeding grades — 
the fourth, fifth, and sixth — the emphasis should be 
placed upon training for rapid and effective silent reading, 
oral reading being utilized to some extent to afford train- 
ing in oral expression. At the close of the elementary 
period the pupil should be a relatively accomplished 
reader. During the junior high school period — grades 
seven, eight, and nine — reading instruction will naturally 
become a part of the work in English. The pupil then 
will have ample opportunity for practice in rapid silent 
reading. 

Necessity of clearly defined aims and carefully worked 
out methods for teaching silent reading. — The teaching 
of silent reading — if it is to be effective — must be based 
upon clearly defined aims and carefully worked out meth- 
ods of procedure. It might be inferred from much of the 
discussion which has preceded that the only objectives of 
silent reading are a rapid rate and efficiency in repro- 
ducing specific points. As a matter of fact silent reading 
implies much more. It implies above all the ability to 
react to the materials of the printed page in a critical 
manner — the ability to use them in the solution of daily 
problems and for purposes of general intellectual growth. 
Silent reading and study are, therefore, essentially 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 195 

synonymous. Therefore training in silent reading implies 
training in study and training in the use of books. This 
means of course that training in silent reading should be 
closely correlated with the work in other subjects. It 
stresses the necessity of making the reading exercise spe- 
cific and purposeful. The continued reading of selections 
for no other purpose than to restate in general what has 
been read is at best a questionable practice. For the 
most part the pupil should read with specific problems in 
mind — problems which have been defined under the 
direction of the teacher before the reading begins. The 
pupil should be judged largely by the speed and the accu- 
racy which he displays in connection with reading of this 
kind. 

As the pupil advances from grade to grade the amount 
of reading which he must do necessarily increases. It 
becomes increasingly important that he should be able to 
survey materials rapidly — often in advance of more inten- 
sive study for the purpose of determining the general 
trend of the discussion and the points of emphasis. 
Reading of this kind is not uncommon among adults who 
have become skilled in the use of printed materials. It is 
often a mere skimming, — words, phrases, sentences, and 
even large portions of paragraphs being omitted. For 
general survey purposes such skimming represents a de- 
cided advance over rapid silent reading in which every 
word is read. It is doubtless at this point, more than 
anywhere else, that the experienced and trained adult 
surpasses the high school pupil and the elementary pupil 
in reading efficiency. It is highly probable, however, that 
ability in skimming could be developed much earlier 



196 THE READING PROCESS 

through directed training. The junior high school period 
would seem to offer an excellent starting point, the pupil 
being led gradually from rapid silent reading to skim- 
ming. 

Whipple's investigation of skimming. — A recent in- 
vestigation reported by Whipple 1 throws considerable 
light upon the nature of skimming and its relation to 
reading. Six subjects — university students and instruc- 
tors — were tested for both oral and silent reading and 
for skimming. Whipple found the usual individual 
variation — one individual, for example, skimming three 
times as fast as another. He discovered that there was a 
close relationship between an individual's ordinary rate 
of reading and his "preferred rate of skimming." In 
general skimming was most successful when the reader 
was allowed to proceed at his own rate and when the 
subject matter lay distinctly within the range of his 
information. There was also in evidence a progressive 
improvement as an individual passed from the first to the 
last part of a selection. 

The devices adopted in skimming varied widely — the 
procedures of the several subjects having little in common 
beyond the reading of the topic sentences. "One indi- 
vidual reported that she read the topic sentences care- 
fully and then followed down the sides of the paragraph, 
catching an important word occasionally and thus follow- 
ing the sentence until the verb was reached." Another 
"read the topic sentences and then keeping these in mind 
skimmed down the center of the page for new ideas of 
importance. She usually read some or all of the con- 

1 See "Selected References" (8). 



ORAL AND SILENT READING 197 

eluding sentences." Still another "skimmed from topic to 
topic keeping the leading ones in mind, omitting the 
middle portions of sentences and emphasizing nouns." 
Whipple concludes that skimming is distinctly advan- 
tageous and that it might well be cultivated in the public 
schools. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Gray, C. T— "Types of Reading Ability as Exhibited through 

Tests and Laboratory Experiments"; Supplementary Educa- 
tional Monographs, I, No. 5. 

2. Gray, W. S. — "Studies in Elementary School Reading through 

Standardized Tests"; Supplementary Educational Mono- 
graphs, I, No. 1. 

3. Judd, Chas. H. — "Reading: Its Nature and Development"; Sup- 

plementary Educational Monographs, II, No. 4. 

"Measuring the Results of the Public Schools"; Survey 

Committee of the Cleveland Foundation. Russell Sage Foun- 
dation, 1916. 

4. Mead, C. D. — "Results in Silent vs. Oral Reading"; Journal of 

Educational Psychology, VIII, 367-368. 
"Silent vs. Oral Reading with 100 Sixth Grade Chil- 
dren"; Journal of Educational Psychology, VI, 345-348. 

5. Pintner, R., and Galliland, A. R. — "Oral and Silent Read- 

ing"; Journal of Educational Psychology, VII, 201-212. 

6. Pintner, R. — "Oral and Silent Reading of Fourth Grade 

Pupils"; Journal of Educational Psychology, IV, 333-337. 

7. Schmidt, W. A. — "An Experimental Study in the Psychology of 

Reading"; Supplementary Educational Monographs, I, No. 2. 

8. Whipple, G. M., and Curtis, J. N. — "Preliminary Investigation 

of Skimming in Reading"; Journal of Educational Psy- 
chology, VIII, 333-349. 



CHAPTER X 

THE CONTENT OF READERS 

One of the most important and persistent problems of 
reading instruction concerns the nature of the materials 
to be read. Since these are for the most part embodied in 
series of readers, any discussion of this problem must of 
necessity center largely about the content of readers. 

Early content chiefly religious. — The forerunner of the 
modern reader — the primer — was dominantly religious in 
character. The earliest printed ABC books — Catholic 
and Protestant alike — contained both the alphabet and 
the creed. The corresponding primers which were used 
by the older children were to all intents and purposes 
manuals of church service. In fact they were the imme- 
diate forerunners of the "Book of Common Prayer." In 
time the ABC books and the primers became united into 
one book — the primer. 

"The New England Primer."— In this country the 
most popular of these primers was the famous "New 
England Primer" published about 1690. "For one hun- 
dred years," as Ford points out, "this primer was the 
school book of America, and for another hundred it was 
frequently reprinted." He estimates that some three 
million copies have been sold. 1 During this long period 

1 The New England Primer. 

198 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 199 

the book naturally underwent many changes — without, 
however, at any time losing its essential characteristics. 
Reeder gives the following summary of the contents of 
the edition of 1777: 

A child's morning and evening prayer ; the alphabet, vowels, 
consonants, capitals, small letters, syllabariums consisting 
of ab, eb, ib, etc., and lists of words -for spelling arranged 
according to the number of syllables beginning with monosyllables 
and ending with abomination, exhortation, etc.; a lesson for 
children including such unadorned moral injunctions as: Pray 
to God, Tell no lies, Call no ill names, Mind your book, Be not 
a dunce, etc.; a series of woodcuts associated with the letters of 
the alphabet in order beginning with the tree of forbidden fruit, 
the serpent, and our first parents, and all arranged in appropriate 
rhyme. Thus : 

In Adam's fall 
We finned all. 

The Deluge drown'd 
The Earth around. 

As runs the glass 
Our Life doth pass. 

Young Obadias, 
David, Josias 
All were pious. 

Zaccheus he 

Did climb the Tree 

Our Lord to fee. 

Next, the Catechism beginning with easy questions: Who was 
the first man ? the first woman ? the first murderer ? the first martyr ? 
the oldest man? the meekest man? the strongest man? etc.; an 
infant's grace before and after meat; an alphabet of lessons for 
youth, using proverbs and other Bible admonitions, the Lord's 
Prayer, the Creed, Dr. Watt's Cradle Hymn, "Hush my Babe," 



200 



THE READING PROCESS 




In Adam's Fall 
We finned all. 




The Dejuge drown'd 

The Earth around. 





m 





As runs the Glass, 
Our Life doth pass. 




Young Ob adias, 
David, Josias 
All were pious* 




Z a c c n r tr s he 
Did climb tho Tree 
Our Lord to fee. 



Picture Alphabet Illustrating the Religious Jingles of the 

Early Primers 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 201 

etc.; a picture of the burning of John Rogers at the stake, "wit- 
nessed by his wife with nine small children and one at the breast," 
followed by a long posthumous poem of advice and warning to his 
children. Then the Shorter Catechism by John Patton called 
Spiritual Milk for American Babes drawn from the breasts of 
both Testaments for their soul's nourishment. The book closes 
with a tragic scene in which Youth, after alternately listening 
to the admonitions of Christ and the solicitations of the Devil, 
weighs his destiny, vacillates, and finally chooses the evil and 
goes to hell. 1 

Gradual secularization of reading materials. — With 
the passing of the eighteenth century and the coming of 
the nineteenth, reading materials became gradually secu- 
larized. This was due to a variety of causes: Puritan- 
ism was making way for more liberal and more diversified 
religious views; national growth and material develop- 
ment brought with them many and varied interests ; the 
schools themselves were passing more and more under 
state and secular control; and, finally, the views of such 
educators as Comenius, Rousseau, and Pestalozzi — views 
which called for greater adaptation to child nature — 
began to be felt, especially with the passing of the first 
quarter of the century. In spite of this secularization, 
however, much of the content retained a strong moral 
and religious tone. As Mahony points out, "the idea is 
constantly reiterated that it is profitable both spiritually 
and materially to be good. Right and wrong are always 
presented in the sharpest contrast. Evil suffers prompt 
and severe punishment and good is as promptly and deci- 
sively rewarded." Patriotism also assumed an increas- 
ingly important place. And as time passed, science, his- 

1 The Historical Development oj School Readers, pp. 15-16. 



202 THE READING PROCESS 

tory, and literature came to be incorporated more and 
more. 

Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book." — The most 
important book of the new era — the era of secularization 
— was Webster's "Elementary Spelling Book" — a combi- 
nation speller and primer. Immediately upon its publica- 
tion in 1783 this book began to displace the "New Eng- 
land Primer" as the book for beginners and also such 
spellers as had come into use previously. In fact so popu- 
lar did this book prove that two years after its publica- 
tion it was selling at the rate of five hundred copies per 
week. By 1880 the sales had reached a total of more 
than 80,000,000, and it was selling heavily even during 
the early part of the present century. 

As indicated above, the "Elementary Spelling Book" 
was a combination speller and primer. Some editions 
also contained geographical and grammatical treatises. 
However, in a preface written as early as 1823 Webster 
says: "Geography and Grammar are sciences that re- 
quire distinct treatises, and schools are furnished with 
them in abundance. It is believed to be more useful to 
confine this work to its proper objects — the teaching of 
the first elements of the language, spelling and reading. 
On this subject the opinion of many judicious persons 
concurs with my own." Like its predecessor — the "New 
England Primer" — the "Elementary Spelling Book" suf- 
fered many changes during its long career and yet never 
lost its essential characteristics. An edition printed in 
1823 — the oldest edition which the writer has had an 
opportunity to examine — contains 168 pages. Approxi- 
mately 16 pages are devoted to the preface, an analysis 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 203 

of the sounds of the English language, a key to pronunci- 
ation, the alphabet, and a syllabarium. Long lists of 
words classified on the basis of number of syllables, 
accent, derivation, orthographic analogies, etc., extend 
over some 60 pages. Nearly 30 pages are devoted to per- 
sonal and geographical names — mostly the latter. A few 
pages are devoted to numbers, abbreviations, a census of 
the United States, etc. Finally about 60 pages are de- 
voted to such content as maxims, illustrated fables, 
poems, precepts concerning social relations, a history of 
the creation of the world, and a moral catechism. The 
following is a typical reading lesson : 

Be a good child; mind your book; love your school; and strive 
to learn. 

Tell no tales ; call no ill names ; you must not lie, nor swear, nor 
cheat, nor steal. 

Play not with bad boys; use no ill words at play; spend your 
time well; live in peace, and shun all strife. This is the way to 
make good men love you, and save your soul from pain and woe. 

The precepts concerning social relations begin as 
follows: 

Art thou a young man seeking a partner for life? Obey the 
ordinance of God, and become a useful member of society. But be 
not in haste to marry, and let thy choice be directed by wisdom. 

Is a woman devoted to dress and amusement? Is she delighted 
with her own praise, or an admirer of her beauty? Is she given 
to talking and loud laughter? If her feet abide not at home, and 
her eyes rove with boldness on the faces of men — turn thy feet 
from her, and suffer not thy heart to be ensnared by thy fancy. 

But when thou findest sensibility of heart joined with softness of 
manners, an accomplished mind and religion, united with sweet- 
ness of temper, modest deportment, and a love of domestic life — 
such is the woman who will divide thy sorrows and double the joys 



204 THE READING PROCESS 

of thy life. Take her to thyself; she is worthy to be thy nearest 
friend, thy companion, and the wife of thy bosom. 

Similar advice is given to young women and to hus- 
bands and wives. The moral catechism which occupies 
some 12 pages resembles the church catechism except that 
it deals with such topics as moral virtue, humility, mercy, 
peacemakers, purity of heart, anger, revenge, justice, gen- 
erosity, gratitude, truth, charity, avarice, frugality, econ- 
omy, industry and cheerfulness. 

Early readers. — School readers in the modern sense of 
the word began to make their appearance almost simul- 
taneously with Webster's speller. In general these books 
furnished more abundant and more suitable reading ma- 
terials than the Primer, the Psalter, and the Bible. The 
content of these readers, as indicated earlier, although 
increasingly secular had a strong moral, patriotic, and 
religious tone. In addition most readers of this and the 
succeeding period contained rather elaborate treatises on 
elocution and the laws of expression. At first readers 
appeared in single volumes, but they soon came to be 
issued in series of two and three — usually an introduc- 
tion, a middle book, and a sequel. These series were 
supplemented by a primer and a speller or — as in the case 
of Webster's speller — by a book which combined the two. 
As time went on, primers — more suitable for beginners 
than the spelling book — made their appearance. In con- 
sequence the latter came to occupy more and more the 
place of a speller in the sense in which the word is now 
used. 

The most popular readers of this period — the period 
from about 1785 to 1830 — were; Webster's "An Ameri- 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 205 

can Selection of Lessons in Reading and Speaking/' pub- 
lished about 1785; Bingham's two books — "The American 
Preceptor" and the "Columbian Orator/' published in 
1794 and 1797 respectively; Lindley Murray's three book 
series — "The English Reader," "The Introduction to the 
English Reader," and "The Sequel to the English 
Reader," introduced into this country during the early 
part of the century; Pierpont's four book series — "The 
Young Reader," "The Introduction," "The National 
Reader," and "The American First Class Book," pub- 
lished in 1823 ; and Cobb's "Juvenile Readers," published 
in 1831. 

Webster's reader. — Webster's reader was not so 
popular as his speller nor so widely used as the other 
series mentioned above. The book, as Reeder points out, 
contained "many selections from American statesmen and 
patriots"; also "narrative and descriptive prose selections 
and poetry" — intended for the most part to inculcate 
"moral and religious sentiments" — but "scarcely any 
piece that could be classed as literature." 

Bingham's readers. — These readers were very popular. 
As in the case of Webster's book, the selections were for 
the most part of American authorship — few being literary 
in character. Fiction was purposely avoided — because 
of its tendency to instill "false notions into the minds 
of children." In characterizing the content of "The 
American Preceptor," Reeder says: "There is a poem 
by Pope and one by Cowper; Franklin's story of the 
whistle appears. Many pieces are upon abstract subjects 
with no author's name attached and many are by obscure 
writers; there are several stories and anecdotes; patriot- 



206 THE READING PROCESS 

ism is a marked feature/' The poetry of the "Columbian 
Orator," Reeder continues, "was from Hannah More, 
Addison, and Rowe." The book contains also "a number 
of addresses made in Congress, in the British Parliament, 
and by generals to their armies." * 

Lindley Murray's series. — From a literary standpoint 
Lindley Murray's series — compiled in England — sur- 
passed other books of its time, selections from Addison, 
Goldsmith, Pope, Gray, Cowper, Milton, and Wordsworth 
being quite common ; but — as happens so often under 
such circumstances — the materials were not as well 
adapted to the needs and interests of children as those of 
more humble authorship in the American series. Reeder's 
characterization of the middle book — "The English 
Reader" — will afford some idea of the content of this 
series: 

The introduction devotes some eight pages to the principles of 
good reading. The book is divided into the following chapters: 
Select sentences consisting of proverbs, moral maxims, etc.; Nar- 
ratives, including Bible stories and other moral content; Didactic, 
under which are lessons on gratitude, forgiveness, gentleness, a 
suspicious temper, comforts of religion, dignity of virtue, mortifi- 
cation of vice, moderation of wishes, etc. ; Argumentative, including 
brief dissertations upon virtue and piety, man's highest interest, 
the injustice of an uncharitable spirit, disinterested friendship, 
the immortality of the soul, and others of like unquestioned moral 
worth; Descriptive, consisting of such selections as the creation, 
charity, the beauties of the Psalms, character of King Alfred, the 
man of integrity, and the character of Queen Elizabeth. Other 
chapter headings were pathetic pieces, dialogues, and public 
speeches; under all of which strong meat, not milk for babes, 
was served to the youth of the early schools of the century. 2 



1 Op. cit., pp. 36-38. 

2 Op. cit., pp. 39-*0. 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 207 

Pierpont's series. — This series represented much that is 
highly commendable. The usual treatise on expression 
was omitted. The author having observed "that that part 
of schoolbooks which consists of brief treatises upon 
rhetoric, rules for reading, and essays on elocution is 
almost uniformly little worn," concluded "that it is of 
little use" and that "reading like conversation" must be 
"learned from example rather than by rule." The con- 
tent was strongly American, though not arrogantly so, 
since "selections were made from the best American and 
English writers." The following extract from the preface 
of the third book, "The American First Class Book," 
explains why the author favored American selections in 
contrast to the exclusive use of English materials, as in 
the Lindley Murray series: 

This country has political institutions of its own, institutions 
which the men of succeeding generations must uphold. But this 
they cannot do unless they are early made to understand and 
value them. It has a history of its own of which it need not be 
ashamed — fathers, heroes, and sages of its own, whose deeds and 
praises are being said or sung by even the mighty "masters of 
the lay" and with whose deeds and praises by being made familiar 
in our childhood, we shall be not the less qualified to act well 
our part as citizens of a republic. Our country both physically and 
morally has a character of its own. Should not something of this 
character be learned by its children while at school? Its moun- 
tains, and prairies, and lakes, and rivers, and cataracts; its shores 
and hill tops that were early made sacred by dangers and sacrifices, 
and deaths of the devout and the daring; it does seem as if these 
were worthy of being held up as objects of interest to the young 
eyes that from year to year are opening upon them, and worthy 
of being linked with all their sacred associations to the young 
affections which sooner or later must be bound to them, or they 
must cease to be what they now are — the inheritance and abode of a 
free people. 



208 THE READING PROCESS 

Cobb's series. — The most commendable feature of 
Cobb's series appears in the fact that he aimed to adapt 
the choice and the arrangement of his materials to the 
needs and interests of children — in so far as such a thing 
was possible at that time. His was accordingly, as Reeder 
points out, "the first carefully graded series of readers 
produced in America.' ' At first the series consisted of 
three volumes; later the number was increased to five. 
Cobb's selections were mainly of American authorship. 
From a literary standpoint they were inferior to those of 
Pierpont, but — as indicated above — they were much bet- 
ter adapted to the needs and interests of children. "The 
three juvenile numbers contained no literature whatever. 
They comprised stories, information lessons about ani- 
mals, and a great many definitions, forming a sort of 
child's dictionary." In the last book of the series,~"The 
North American Reader," — "the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence and the Constitution are inserted. Many of 
the selections are by obscure writers. Many are of a 
political and patriotic trend. A number are by senators, 
presidents, and statesmen." For "poetry Shakespeare, 
Shelley, Campbell, Byron, Montgomery, and Mrs. 
Hemans are drawn upon." The popularity of the series 
was such that some six million copies were sold. 

Mid-century readers. — From 1840 to 1880 school read- 
ers multiplied rapidly. Almost without exception they 
appeared in graded series of from five to six volumes. 
Pierpont's protest against elaborate treatises on expres- 
sion does not appear to have been taken seriously for, as 
Reeder points out, "in almost every series produced in 
this middle period of American authorship considerable 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 209 

space" — sometimes as much as fifty pages in the case of 
the upper volumes — is "devoted to the various accessories 
of good reading including the principles of elocution, rhet- 
oric, and orthoepy." The emphasis on elocution is fur- 
ther reflected in the content of the readers of this period, 
selections which lend themselves readily to expression 
being very common. Beyond this, the reading materials 
of this period differ from those of the preceding chiefly in 
being more varied, the range of topics being in many 
cases almost encyclopedic. The moral tone, too, is less 
austere, although the practical virtues are strongly em- 
phasized throughout the period. The majority of the 
selections are not strictly literary in character; and those 
which approximate literary standards are for the most 
part extracts and adaptations from larger wholes. These 
characteristics — the encyclopedic, nonliterary, and frag- 
mentary character of the selections — have been severely 
condemned. With all their defects, the better series of 
this period are obviously superior to some of those pub- 
lished during the early part of the present century. 

The McGuff ey readers. — The McGuffey readers — pub- 
lished in 1850 — represent by far the most popular series 
of this period. "In range of subject matter," as Reeder 
points out, this series "swept almost the entire field of 
human interest — morals, economics, politics, history, sci- 
ence, and philosophy." The selections — although often 
adapted and in the case«of the lower numbers frequently 
rewritten — were on the whole of excellent authorship. 
To a marked extent, too, the choice of materials was de- 
termined by the interests of children. Thus in the preface 
to the new edition of 1857 the compilers state: "Such 



210 THE READING PROCESS 

lessons as discriminating practical teachers have found 
the least interesting have been removed, and others, with 
large additions — especially of primary matter — have been 
introduced." Much attention was directed toward the 
careful grading of the selections in order that the pupils 
might be "led forward step by step along an easy grada- 
tion." 

Provision was made, further, for ample drill on spelling 
and pronunciation. In the fifth reader of the edition of 
1857 twenty-eight pages are devoted to directions for 
reading, articulation, inflection, emphasis, accent, modu- 
lation, pauses, etc. In addition, almost every reading 
lesson is accompanied — and probably for very good rea- 
sons from the standpoint of the language problems of the 
time — by specific corrective exercises in pronunciation 
such as the following: 

Pronounce correctly. Do not say nar-rer for narrow; pen-it-trate 
for pen-e-trate; se-crits for se-crets; na-tur nor na-tshure for na- 
ture; he-yend for be-yond; cal-Jcy-late for cahcu-late; an-er-lyzd for 
an-a-lyzed; nat-shu-ral-ist for nat-u-ral-ist; spec-Jcy-late for spec-u- 
late; flu-ne-cy for flu-en-cy; pi-an-er for pi-a-no; per-tic-er-lul-ly 
for par-tie-u-lar-ly. 

Late nineteenth and early twentieth century readers. 
— Since 1880 school readers have appeared in increasing 
numbers and have succeeded each other rapidly — few 
enjoying the long-lived popularity of some of the 
early and mid-century series. On the whole the late 
nineteenth and early twentieth century period — roughly 
from 1880 to 1910 — has been one of marked progress. In 
fact it was during these years that the literary reader of 
to-day was evolved. This accounts in no small part for 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 211 

the rapid succession and the more or less limited popu- 
larity of many of the series of this period — not a few of 
which represented genuine merit in one respect or 
another. 

After 1880 the thesis that the content of school readers 
should be literary in character came to be generally ac- 
cepted. In actual practice, however, it was difficult to 
realize this ideal — so much so indeed, that it was not until 
well toward the close of the period that a suitable literary 
content was incorporated in all numbers of the series. 
Hardy— writing in 1891 — characterizes the situation as 
follows : 

The first years of a child's school experience are devoted to 
initiating him into the mysteries of the alphabet and the primer. 
Having mastered their difficulties, he passes onward to a graded 
series of readers which as a rule consist of five books — "the five 
inanities" they have been called. The briefest examination of any 
of these books will show that the average reader is a purely hap- 
hazard collection of prose and poetical extracts of varying degrees 
of literary merit. In the lower numbers the contents are of such 
vacuous and insipid character and appeal so slightly to the inter- 
ests or to the imagination of the child, that one is unavoidably 
forced to conclude that the selections have been made to order for 
grading purposes only. The third and fourth readers are less 
trivial perhaps, but even more commonplace. Where the selections 
have not been taken outright from standard works, they are gen- 
erally feeble and uninspiring; and their literary value is nil, 
whether we examine them from the point of view of their thought 
content, the language in which they are written, or the form in 
which they are cast. The literary value of the higher numbers 
is generally greater, inasmuch as the lessons are made up almost 
entirely of extracts from standard authors. Although the selections 
are not always wisely or even happily made, yet these readers 
present to children their only opportunity of coming into con- 
tact with real literature during their school course. 1 

1 Educational Review, II : 140-150. 



212 THE READING PROCESS 

President Eliot — writing at about the same time — is 
even more severe in his denunciation of the fragmentary 
and nonliterary character of the content of school readers. 
He says: 

I have paid some attention to the readers in our public schools 
throughout the country. I have read an enormous quantity of 
them, and can express the conviction that it would be for the ad- 
vancement of the whole system if every reader were hereafter to 
be excluded from the schools. I object to them because they are 
not real literature; they are mere scraps of literature, even where 
the single lessons or material of which they are composed are taken 
from literature. But there are a great many readers that seem 
to have compositions expressly for children. They are not made 
from selections of recognized literature, and as a rule this class is 
simply ineffable trash. They are simply unfit material to use in 
the training of our children. The object of reading with children 
is to convey to them the ideals of the human race. Our readers 
do not do that and are entirely unfitted to do it. I believe we 
should substitute in all our schools real literature for readers. 1 

While there was doubtless in many cases ample justi- 
fication for criticism, it must be borne in mind that some 
of those who represented the advanced literary ideals of 
the time were inclined to take rather extreme positions 
regarding the place of literature in our schools. Not only 
did they overestimate its educational function and value 
— for reasons which we cannot elaborate here — but they 
often failed to realize that the normal elementary school 
child is not sufficiently mature to be deeply interested in 
"the ideals of the human race/' especially when couched 
in adult literary form, and literature it must be remem- 
bered was much more rigidly defined at that time than it 
is to-day. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that 

1 Eliot, Chas. W.: Educational Reform; The Century Company. 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 213 

actual attempts to incorporate the extreme literary point 
of view in series of readers have not been successful 
because the demands such books made upon children 
rendered them generally impracticable. The eminently 
successful literary series of to-day are of course based 
upon a very different conception of literature — embody- 
ing as they do for the most part the literature of child- 
hood. 

As indicated earlier, the rank and file of teachers and 
educators — including the compilers of the school readers 
— were not opposed to literature in the schools. On the 
contrary they were busily engaged in introducing it. 
Only — in contrast with those who represented the ex- 
treme literary point of view — they were keenly aware of 
many of the practical difficulties. They found through 
actual experience that there is a vast gulf between the 
interests of childhood and adult literature. Moreover, 
most literary works comprised relatively large units while 
the school reader was limited in size and was in the very 
nature of the case required to represent some variety in 
content. 

The compiler of the school reader was, therefore, face 
to face with problems the solution of which was anything 
but easy — problems which could for the most part be 
solved only with time and experience. Such being the 
case, the striking fact about the readers of this period is 
not so much that they contain material which might well 
be criticized but rather that they represent as much ex- 
cellence as they do. 

Until well toward the middle of this period few — if any 
— compilers attempted to introduce literary materials to 



214 THE READING PROCESS 

any extent into the lower numbers of the series ; and some 
have made little effort to do so even during the latter 
part of the period. The selections in these numbers are, 
therefore, often rather commonplace and sometimes they 
are artificial and disjointed. There are, however, 
many exceptions. Indeed, in not a few of the series the 
content of the lower numbers is delightfully pleasing and 
interesting. 

In the words of the compiler of one of the series pub- 
lished during the early eighties, "earnest effort was 
directed" — in the case of the first two books — "to the 
difficult task of furnishing fitting food for the child mind 
— to providing readings that shall be simple without be- 
ing silly." In the case of the next two books an attempt 
was made — and quite successfully too — "to introduce a 
little of what may be called organism by carrying on a 
certain number of pieces (about one half) on distinct 
strains — a series of lessons on Borne Pets/ as the living 
forms most familiar and interesting to children ; a second 
series 'Bright Examples/ to touch and stimulate the 
affections; a third series ' About Plants/ as a slight 
glimpse of nature in one of her most attractive aspects; 
etc." 

A stronger illustration of the possibilities of such ma- 
terials is afforded by the primer and first three numbers 
of a series published some twenty-five years later. In the 
words of the compilers, the content of the first number 
"is the content of the happy life of childhood. Here are 
bees, butterflies, and grasshoppers; here are birds — little 
birds in their nests; here are flowersr— the dandelion, the 
daisy, the clover, the rose, the violet, the lily; here are 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 215 

pussy cats and pussy willows, mice and squirrels; here are 
ducks, geese, and foxes; here are spring, fall, summer, and 
winter, and the delightful things that each season brings; 
here are the sun, the moon, the stars ; here are rain, ice, 
and snow ; here are the meadows, the green grass, and the 
flying leaves; here are fairies and a giant; here are the 
lullabies that dear mother sings to tired children; here 
are stories and events in which all these delightful com- 
panions of childhood take part. Children who read this 
book join the happy company — joyfully live the scenes in 
imagination and eagerly enact them in dramatization." 

In the second and third numbers, "stories, poems, and 
illustrations are full of action, full of appeal to the child- 
ish imagination. Everything is alive, is personified ; the 
moon, the wind, the rain, the grass, the seeds, the trees 
and flowers, as well as the children and the simple people, 
the animals, and the fairies, all live and speak the lan- 
guage of the child's heart and imagination." 

The series which have introduced literature in the 
lower numbers fall in two classes — those utilizing and 
adapting simple selections from the field of general litera- 
ture; and those drawing largely upon the literature of 
childhood — rhymes, jingles, folk stories, fairy tales, 
legends, and fables. Books of the first class began 
to appear in the early nineties. In one of these series a 
considerable number of the selections in the second reader 
are intended to introduce the pupil to Longfellow. For 
the most part these selections are biographical and — as 
far as possible — of such a nature as to appeal to children. 
Incidentally some of Longfellow's simpler poems — "Chil- 
dren," "The Village Blacksmith," etc., — are introduced. 



216 THE READING PROCESS 

A considerable portion of the third reader is given over 
to Whittier, Lowell, and Julia Dorr. In addition there 
are selections from such writers as Tennyson, George 
Macdonald, and the Grimm brothers. 

Books of the second class began to appear somewhat 
later. In the words of one of the earliest compilers the 
content of the lower numbers comprises "rhymes and 
jingles which have sung themselves generation after gen- 
eration in the nursery or on the playground ; short stories 
which have been told since the world was young; old 
fables in which the teachings of long experience are em- 
bodied ; legends and fairy tales which form the traditional 
common stock of the fancies and sentiments of the race." 
This kind of literary material — once it was presented in 
attractive form — proved to be very popular. 

The content of the middle and upper numbers of the 
series of this period is dominantly literary — almost with- 
out exception in the case of the upper numbers. As 
might be expected, the selections are by no means always 
well adapted to the needs and interests of children. 
Milton's L' Allegro and II Penseroso — which are found in 
the upper numbers of some of the series — would obvi- 
ously make a very meager appeal to seventh and eighth 
grade children. Besides, the selections are quite com- 
monly fragmentary, the prose for the most part being 
extracts from larger wholes. Not infrequently one finds 
upward of one hundred of these selections in a given 
number of a series. With all this, many of the series rep- 
resent much excellence. Some compilershave shown marked 
skill in choosing relatively long selections and in grouping 
shorter ones so as to give them some degree of unity. 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 217 

In a series published during the early eighties the 
content of the highest number is grouped under twenty 
authors — ten British and ten American — the first being 
Shakespeare and the last Lowell. Each author is intro- 
duced through an interesting biographical sketch. The 
plan of another series — the middle and upper numbers of 
which were published during the last years of the nine- 
teenth century — is well stated in the compiler's introduc- 
tion to the fourth reader: 

It has been deemed best to continue the plan of the previous 
books of the series and introduce several central figures. We have 
been reading and becoming acquainted with the American poets; 
now we enter a new field of literature, and the great prose writers, 
Hawthorne, Irving, Dickens, and Scott, with the English poet 
Tennyson, shed the influence of their character and writings in the 
classroom. The pupil looks into their faces and visits their homes. 
Their early childhood, their battle with adversity, and the influ- 
ences that determined the currents of their lives become familiar. 
Then with awakened interest and admiration, he reads the messages 
they have left behind them. Characteristic selections from these 
authors have been carefully chosen with reference to the capacity 
of the children. These selections have been somewhat abridged 
but it has been thought wiser to have them a little longer than 
many textbooks introduce, rather than to mar the symmetry and 
beauty of the author's work. 

Current readers. — During the last ten years school 
readers have multiplied rapidly. In part at least this 
is due to the fact that pupils now read a considerable 
number of books in the course of a semester or year 
whereas formerly one sufficed. With the partial excep- 
tion of some of the most recent series, the content of 
current readers is dominantly literary; and the selections 
are mostly such as appeal to the interests of children. 



218 THE READING PROCESS 

The content of the lower numbers is drawn largely 
from the literature of childhood — rhymes, jingles, folk 
stories, fairy tales, legends, and fables. The selections 
represent on the whole relatively large and complete 
units. While the lower numbers of the last period often 
contained upward of one hundred more or less isolated 
selections, the first three books of one of the recent series 
contain from twelve to twenty-one — each being a rela- 
tively complete classic of childhood. The primer of 
another series is made up of a few beautifully illustrated 
rhymes and songs. The content of the first reader is lim- 
ited to three old English rhymes, three jingles, three 
selections from Mother Goose, seven child stories, three 
legends, four old English tales, three fairy tales, four 
selections from folklore, three Russian wonder tales, and 
two poems — thirty-five selections in all. In the case of 
some of the most recent series there is in evidence— as 
indicated above — a tendency to depart somewhat from 
established literary paths and to select materials which 
make perhaps a more immediate appeal to children. 
"The child's own life," the compilers of one of these 
series hold, "is the basis of his interests." Accordingly 
one finds in the primer and the first reader of this series 
an interesting and continuous story, a story about the 
adventures and activities of normal boys and girls. The 
literary materials — rhymes, folklore, and fables — which 
enter into these numbers are so skillfully woven into the 
narrative that they become a part of the experiences of 
the children. 

The content of the middle and upper numbers of cur- 
rent series is drawn largely from the wider fields of 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 219 

literature. In fact there is in evidence a strong tendency 
to interpret the term "literature" with increasing liberal- 
ity. Indeed, materials which were tabooed a few years 
ago are to-day quite within the pale of literature. Even 
those who maintain relatively rigid literary standards are 
commendably liberal in their outlook. "A classic," the 
compilers of one of the most complete of recent literary 
series tells us, "is not necessarily abstruse, difficult, or 
remote from common life. It is a piece of literature that 
has received the approval of good judges for a long 
enough time to make that approval settled." It "may be 
as old as Homer or as new as Hawthorne; it may be as 
difficult as Dante or as simple as Mother Goose. Indeed, 
a large proportion of the classics of the world are very 
simple. In ^Esop and Homer, and the old fairy tales, 
and many of the great stories of the world like 'Robinson 
Crusoe/ their simplicity is one of their highest merits." 
The materials in these literary series are, therefore, for 
the most part such as appeal to the interests of children. 

What is more, the compilers of some of the most recent 
series have gone so far as to admit considerable non- 
literary material in the middle and upper numbers. In- 
deed, in the introduction to one of these series the com- 
pilers state quite frankly that they "have purposely 
avoided the established paths of literary reputation, and 
have selected from a wide variety of sources interesting 
materials representative of the printed matter the child 
will inevitably read." That there is much to be said in 
favor of this departure — which may assume material pro- 
portions in the near future — we shall point out later. 

As in the case of the lower numbers, there is evidently 



220 THE READING PROCESS 

a growing tendency to choose longer selections or — where 
this does not appear practicable — to group the selections, 
as in the previous period, about some central idea so as 
to give at least some degree of unity. Thus in the case 
of one of the series, each number — beginning with the 
fourth reader — is divided into two parts, one containing 
general selections and the other selections grouped under 
several authors. As the series advances, selections of the 
first type decrease and those of the second increase. In 
the fourth reader there are forty general selections and 
twelve grouped under three authors; in the eighth there 
are fourteen of the general selections and thirty-four 
grouped under eleven authors. In another series the 
interest centers about the "out of doors" in the fourth 
reader; about "stories of action and their revelation of 
character" in the fifth; about "world famous stories" in 
the sixth ; about "the history and ideals of our country" 
in the seventh; and about "those authors who from 
Shakespeare to Tennyson have been the glory of the 
English race" in the eighth. 

Special and supplementary readers. — Our discussion 
thus far has centered largely about the regular graded 
series of readers — the content of which was for a long 
time encyclopedic but has more recently become domi- 
nantly literary. At a comparatively early date, however, 
there began to appear readers which concerned them- 
selves "with some special department of knowledge or 
interest." One of the first of these was Adam's "Agri- 
cultural Reader" — published in 1824. The book con- 
tained much information which was interesting and valu- 
able. In 1827 Blake's "Historical Reader" appeared. 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 221 

The selections were chosen from both general and Ameri- 
can history. The first complete series to launch into 
specialization, Reeder tells us, was the Willson seven book 
series, published in 1860. The chief purpose of this series 
was to supply information "along all lines of science, 
beginning with the near at hand and moving toward the 
remote, — lessons on conduct and morals" being inserted 
here and there. Subsequently a number of special series 
appeared. For the most part these received rather scant 
recognition, however, — largely because of our increasing 
bias toward a literary content. 

Nevertheless, special materials found their way into 
our schools, for the most part through the medium of the 
ungraded supplementary reader. Books of this kind have 
increased tremendously during the last few decades. Most 
commonly the materials have been drawn from such 
fields as biography and history, geography, pure and ap- 
plied science, and economics. On the whole biographical 
and historical materials have been most popular. In 
recent years geographical materials also have come into 
great favor — and rightly so. Unfortunately the natural 
and applied sciences — which offer almost unlimited possi- 
bilities — have been drawn upon all too sparingly. The 
economic and sociological fields, likewise, have been 
barely touched upon. 

To a great extent the supplementary reading materials 
in our schools have been drawn from the field of litera- 
ture. In many cases — especially in the lower and middle 
grades — such materials are supplied through additional 
series of readers. In the upper — and to some extent in 
the middle grades as well — whole classics have been used 



222 THE READING PROCESS 

extensively for years. Indeed, in many instances these 
have proven so popular that they have quite supplanted 
the usual series — both regular and supplementary — as 
President Eliot suggested in the early nineties. 

The future of the school reader. — The present highly 
perfected literary series— the evolution of which we have 
been tracing — are largely the outgrowth of a cultural 
conception of the purposes of teaching reading. For 
several decades the aims of reading instruction have been 
thought of largely in terms of acquainting the pupil with 
literature and of developing in him as far as possible a 
capacity for literary appreciation. Along with this there 
has of course gone the assumption that the pupil who has 
learned to read literature appreciatively has also inci- 
dentally acquired the ability to read content materials 
in an effective manner. As a matter of fact, this assump- 
tion is probably far from true. In other words, it appears 
to be one thing to read a story or a poem appreciatively 
and quite another to read a content selection in such a 
manner that the essential facts may be selected and used 
for purposes of constructive thinking. 

It is, therefore, not surprising to find that our ele- 
mentary schools — in spite of the fact that they have been 
devoting much of their time to reading instruction — 
have in many cases fallen far short of developing genuine 
reading ability. Indeed, the helplessness which pupils so 
often display in the presence of their school work in the 
intermediate grades — and even in the high school — is in 
no small part due to the fact that they have not been 
trained to read for purposes of constructive thinking. 

Current aims of teaching reading — in so far as their 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 223 

bias is too cultural — are, therefore, in need of revision. 
In other words, we must recognize the necessity of teach- 
ing reading for purposes of constructive thinking quite 
as much as for appreciation. Indeed, one of the chief 
functions of the school is to train the pupil to form sound 
concepts and to use these effectively in the solution of 
the problems of everyday life. This being the case, the 
pupil must be taught to read a wide variety of materials; 
and he must be taught to read discriminately to the end 
that he may utilize the content of the printed page in the 
formation of concepts and the solution of problems. Such 
a revision of the aims of teaching reading will in the very 
nature of the case have important bearings upon the con- 
tent of readers. 

Since most schools use several readers in the course of a 
given semester or year, the basic series of readers may 
well continue to be of a literary character; provided the 
term literature be interpreted with such liberality that 
the materials included will assuredly meet the needs and 
interests of normal children. In the case of the elemen- 
tary school — grades one to six— such series will constitute 
the chief media of introducing children to the literature 
which is intended for them. In the case of the junior 
high school — grades seven to nine — literary studies may 
be carried on far more effectively through the use of whole 
classics. 1 The upper numbers of the series may, there- 
fore, be expected to disappear in the near future. 

Aside from the content of the basic literary series, the 

1 For specific recommendations consult the Report of the National 
Joint Committee on English, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 
1917, No. 2, especially pp. 45-53. 



224 THE READING PROCESS 

bulk of the reading materials should be drawn increas- 
ingly from the special fields — biography and history, 
geography, civics, economics, and sociology, and the nat- 
ural and applied sciences. Materials of this kind — when 
prepared from the point of view of children — have unlim- 
ited possibilities. Not only do they furnish the matter 
of fact content so essential for effective training in con- 
structive thinking but they supply in large measure the 
facts which children need for normal mental growth. 

The extensive use of materials drawn from the special 
fields raises the question of their preparation. Obviously 
materials of this kind cannot be compiled as readily as 
literary selections. In large part, therefore, the selections 
of readers which deal with the special fields must be writ- 
ten, and written from the standpoint of the children who 
are to read them. This is a difficult task — much more 
difficult than compilation — and a task which may well 
enlist the best talent. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Bobbitt, Franklin — "Reading in the Elementary Schools of 

Indianapolis"; Elementary School Journal, XIX, 665-668. 

2. Ford, P. L. — The New England Primer; Dodd, Mead and 

Company, 1897. 

3. Hardy, Geo. E. — "The Function of Literature in Elementary 

Schools" ; Educational Review, II, 140-150. 

4. Huey, E. B. — Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1908. Chapters 13 and 14. 

5. Johnson, C. — Old Time Schools and School Books; The Mac- 

millan Company, 1904. 

6. Kxapper, Paul — Teaching Children to Read; D. Appleton 

and Company, 1914. Chapter 7. 

7. Mahony, J. J. — "Readers in the Good Old Days" ; Educational 

Review, LII, 217-226. 



THE CONTENT OF READERS 225 

8. Reeder, R. R. — "The Historical Development of School Read- 

ers and Methods of Teaching Reading" ; Columbia University 
Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology and Education, 
VIII, No. 2. 

9. Wells, G. P. — "Some Significant Facts in the History of 

Reading as a School Subject"; Education, XXXVI, 585- 
588. 
10. Webster, Noah, Esq. — The American Spelling Book Contain- 
ing the Rudiments of the English Language; Concord, 
N. H., 1823. 



CHAPTER XI 

STANDARD TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 

During the last few years students of the reading 
process have been directing their attention increasingly 
toward the development of standard tests for measuring 
ability in reading. In consequence many tests are avail- 
able to-day— so many, indeed, that any discussion of the 
reading process which did not include some account of 
these would be quite incomplete. From the standpoint 
of the immediate purposes which these tests serve the 
following classes may be distinguished: (1) those meas- 
uring mastery of words as phonograms; (2) those meas- 
uring mastery of word meanings; (3) those measuring 
comprehension of sentences and paragraphs; (4) those 
measuring mastery of word meanings and comprehension 
of sentences and paragraphs; and (5) those measuring 
rate and comprehension in connection with reading ex- 
tending over given units of time. We shall discuss the 
tests in this order. 

Tests measuring mastery of words as phonograms. — 
Tests which measure the mastery of words as phonograms 
are in the very nature of the case concerned with oral 
reading. They may measure a pupil's ability to pro- 
nounce isolated words or they may test the accuracy of 
his pronunciation in connection with continuous reading. 
The following tests have been developed for this purpose : 

226 



. TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 227 

The Jones Scale for Teaching and Testing Elemen- 
tary Reading. — This scale is made up of two word lists — 
one containing 118 phonetic words and the other 192 
sight words. The phonetic list contains all vowel bases or 
phonograms which occur 10 or more times in ten leading 
primers and the sight list contains all the sight words 
which occur 10 or more times in the same primers. 
Jones * states that these word lists were originally in- 
tended "to indicate the field of the first year's vocabulary," 
but that they were ultimately found to be of greater 
service as a test to aid in discovering a "pupil's command 
of the words common to the first, second, and third read- 
ers." The nature of this kind of tests demands in the 
very nature of the case individual examination. A fair 
estimate of the attainment of a class may, however, be 
obtained by examining alternate pupils only. The test 
materials are conveniently arranged — the words of each 
list being printed in the order of their frequency on a 
"Pupils' Card" and a "Teacher's Card." While the pupil 
reads the words from the former, the teacher checks the 
results in appropriate spaces on the latter. The chart on 
the following page gives examples chosen at equal inter- 
vals from the two word lists — the phonetic and the sight. 

A separate score is found for each list. In finding the 
score of a pupil — in the case of either list — the examiner 
determines the difference between the sum of the fre- 
quencies of the words of the list and the sum of the 
frequencies of the words missed by the pupil and divides 
this by the sum of the frequencies of the words of the list 
— the quotient being the score. Thus in the case of the 

2 See "Selected References" (5). 



228 



THE READING PROCESS 



PHONETIC WORDS 
















SIGHT WORDS 


















PUPIL 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


PUPIL 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 

_ 


1° 


1101 bit 


1732 the 

224 here 

131 mouse 

87 fly 

65 tree 

43 roll 


403 shake 
















— 


— 


— 


228 trick 
















140 swim 




















— 


127 chew 




















89 find 






















64 would 






















32 over 
25 love 


















45 pull 


36 charm 


20 wee 
17 iron 
14 wash 
11 meadow 




E 


















25 dance 












18 hole 
12 nod 









sight list the sum of the frequencies of the words is 
17,565. If the sum of the frequencies of the words missed 
by a given pupil is 3,513 his score will be 17,565 minus 
3,513 divided by 17,565 or 80 per cent. The following 
are typical average scores obtained through this scale: 



GRADE 


PHONETIC LIST 


SIGHT LIST 


A 1 


.752 


.846 


B 2 


.941 


.966 


A 2 


.965 


.978 


B 3 


.984 


.987 


A 3 


.986 


.990 



It will be observed that the score of a pupil depends 
more upon the frequencies of the words missed — these 
ranging in the case of the phonetic list from 1101 to 10 
and in the case of the sight list from 1732 to 10 — than 
upon their number. The difficulty of the words is left 
entirely out of consideration. The fact that the words 
are evaluated in terms of their frequencies rather than 
on the basis of their difficulty has frequently been criti- 
cized. As a matter of fact there is need of more than one 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 229 

test at this point. One of these may well be based on the 
assumption — as the Jones Scale is — that within the limits 
of a suitable vocabulary for primary children those words 
are most important which occur most frequently in actual 
reading. However, such a scale measures teaching rather 
than achievement on the part of the pupil. It is, there- 
fore, of particular value to the supervisor in comparing 
the work of different teachers and to the individual 
teacher in evaluating her own aims and methods of pro- 
cedure. Another test might well be based on the assump- 
tion that the words of a primary vocabulary should be 
evaluated in terms of their difficulty. 

The Haggerty Scales for Reading Vocabulary of Pri- 
mary Children. — In these scales the words of the Jones 
lists are arranged in scaled groups in the order of their 
difficulty — nine for the phonetic and twelve for the sight 
list — the words being considered difficult in proportion to 
the numbers of times that they were missed by some 700 
children. Values are assigned accordingly. To this point 
the scales contain all the words of the Jones lists. Hag- 
gerty * recommends, however, that in actual practice only 
certain words of alternate steps be used. In this way a 
class of twenty-five pupils may be tested in an hour. The 
abbreviated scales together with the values of the steps 
are shown on the following page. 

"In scoring, a pupil is credited with the highest num- 
bered line in which he achieves but one error or omission. 
A class is credited with the line in which there is 20 per 
cent of error." It is obvious that the value of this kind 
of tests must depend largely upon the extent to which 

a See "Selected References" (4). 



230 THE READING PROCESS 

VALUE OF STEPS SCALE d' — PHONETIC WORDS 

50 bit, cow, that, out, fox 

55 stay, ran, gun, like, meat 

65 hand, ten, name, head, cold 

75 yet, trick, toy, frog, find 

85 crown, chew, kite, snag, lace 

VALUE OF STEPS SCALE DD' — SIGHT WORDS 

50 come, who, one, she, on 

55 your, pretty, yes, too, house 

65 here, has, bird, put, shall 

75 mamma, blue, next, wood, rabbit 

85 lion, monkey, cradle, naughty, visit 

95 hurrah, pigeon, circus, picnic, pieces 

a standardized vocabulary — the Jones lists in this case — 
is used in the teaching of primary reading. When such 
a vocabulary is used, the scales will constitute an excellent 
means of measuring the achievements of pupils. 

Gray's Standard Oral Reading Test. — This test l con- 
sists of a series of twelve short paragraphs arranged in the 
order of their difficulty and separated by approximately 
equal steps. The series was obtained through elaborate 
experimentation. The test is intended to measure the 
rate of oral reading and the accuracy of pronunciation. 
Pupils are tested individually, the examiner record- 
ing the time required for the reading of each paragraph, 
and all errors falling under the following classes: 

(1) Gross errors in pronunciation, i.e. mispronunciations 
which indicate clearly that the words are beyond the pupil's 
ability. 

(2) Minor errors in pronunciation, i.e. mispronunciation 
of one or two elements of a word. 

(3) Omission of words. 

*See "Selected References" (3). 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 231 

(4) Substitution of one word for another. 

(5) Insertion of words not included in the text. 

(6) Repetitions. 

A pupil continues to read until he makes — in the case of 
each of two paragraphs — at least the following number 
of errors: 

(1) Five or more if the paragraph is read in 40 or more 
seconds; or, 

(2) Seven or more if it is read in less than 40 seconds. 

The reading of each paragraph is scored in accordance 
with four standards of increasing severity. It is checked 
as a failure if: 

A. It is not read because of previous failure. 

It is read in 40 or more seconds with 5 or more errors. 
It is read in less than 40 seconds with seven or more 
errors. 

B. It is not read because of previous failure. 

It is read in 30 or more seconds with four or more 

errors. 
It is read in less than 30 seconds with five or more 

errors. 

O. It is not read because of previous failure. 

It is read in 25 or more seconds with three or more 

errors. 
It is read in less than 25 seconds with four or more 

errors. 

D. It is not read because of previous failure. 

It is read in 20 or more seconds with two or more 

errors. 
It is read in less than 20 seconds with three or more 

errors. 

In order to receive full credit for the reading of a para- 
graph, a pupil must read it correctly in accordance with 



232 THE READING PROCESS 

each of these standards. Beyond this the credit which a 
pupil receives for the successful reading of paragraph 1 
varies from grade to grade — a first grade pupil receiving 
a maximum and an eighth grade pupil a minimum of 
credit. The values of the other paragraphs are the same 
for all the grades. 

In computing the average class score the examiner (1) 
finds the sum of the scores for each paragraph separately, 

(2) multiplies the score for each paragraph by its value, 

(3) finds the sum of the products, and (4) divides this by 
four times the number of pupils in the class. 

In computing individual scores he takes steps (1), (2), 
and (3) — as indicated above — and (4) divides the sum 
of the products by 4. 

The average class score may also be found by comput- 
ing the average of the individual scores. The following 
average class scores — obtained in Grand Rapids in 1916 — 
may be regarded as typical : 



GRADE 


SCORE 


GRADE 


SCORE 


1 


35 


5 


50 


2 


44 


6 


47 


3 


4T 


7 


48 


4 


49 


8 


48 



Most commonly — in order to show progress from grade 
to grade — the scores are represented graphically as in 
Chart IV. The relative positions of the vertical lines 
representing the successive grades indicate the different 
levels of expectation for the several grades — more being 
expected of pupils as they advance from grade to grade. 

This test, it should be borne in mind, concerns itself 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 233 

purely with the mechanics of reading — no attempt being 
made to measure comprehension. There can be no doubt 
that it serves the purposes for which it is intended ad- 
mirably. Not only does it enable the teacher to measure 




Chart IV. Average Oral Reading Scores— Gray's Standard 
Oral Reading Test 

the achievements of pupils in the mechanics of oral read- 
ing with a high degree of accuracy but it makes possible- 



because of its analytical character — a careful diagnosis of 
the causes responsible for unsatisfactory progress. 



234 THE READING PROCESS 

Tests measuring mastery of word meanings. — 
Achievement in word pronunciation and mastery of 
meanings do not necessarily go together. Under skillful 
methods of teaching the mechanics of pronunciation, the 
former may materially outstrip the latter. In conse- 
quence a pupil may translate the symbols of the printed 
page into speech with speed and accuracy but fail in the 
interpretation of their meanings. The following tests- 
intended to determine the extent to which a pupil has 
acquired a working knowledge of word meanings — are, 
therefore, of great value in determining the efficiency of 
reading instruction : 

The Thorndike Visual Vocabulary Scales. — Thorn- 
dike * has developed three visual vocabulary scales — 
Scale A, Scale A2, and Scale B. The purpose of these 
scales is to "measure how hard words a pupil can read in 
the sense of understanding their meanings well enough to 
classify them under the proper heading as an animal, a 
flower, something about time, etc." Scales A2 and B are 
extensions of Scale A and are practically alike. We may, 
therefore, confine our discussion to Scale A2 which is 
used most extensively. The main body of this scale con- 
sists of twenty-three groups of words — these being 
divided into an X and a Y series. The ten words of each 
group are practically equal in difficulty, "in the sense that 
approximately the same percentage of pupils in a given 
grade will succeed" with each. The groups are distributed 
over steps 4 to 10 — these also differing by approximately 
equal amounts. The X series of the scale — including 
directions to pupils — is shown on the following page. 

a See "Selected References" (12). 



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236 THE READING PROCESS 

The scales are accompanied by carefully worked out 
directions regarding the most advantageous methods of 
procedure in giving the tests to individuals and to classes. 
Certain short cuts are recommended in cases "where only 
a measure of the general drift of achievement is desired/' 
Thorndike also points out that "if it is desired to retest a 
group for improvement later, the X or Y words alone may 
be used in the first measurement, or the integral steps 
may be used in the first and second measurements, and 
the half steps in the third." Furthermore, a test may be 
carried on with only a part of the words of each group — 
the balance being reserved for later use. The scoring is 
relatively simple and objective — a pupil's score being the 
number of the step in which he succeeds with not less 
than 80 per cent of the words. 

The Haggerty Visual Vocabulary Scales. — Haggerty * 
- — using the method employed by Thorndike — determined 
the relative difficulties of approximately 1000 words em- 
bracing twenty-seven different classes. He then arranged 
774 of these in sixteen groups! — each "representing a dis- 
tinct degree of difficulty." The lowest was assigned a 
value of 5, the next 10, and so on up to 80. This scaled 
list of words, — intended largely to extend the Thorndike 
Scale A "and to provide duplicate scales for further test- 
ing"— was designated the Indiana-Thorndike Vocabulary 
Scale. Haggerty thereupon selected certain words from 
each group of the scale and constructed his visual vocab- 
ulary scales — Scale R and Scale R2. The two are of 
approximately equal difficulty and may, therefore, be 
used interchangeably, or, when it is desired to measure 

*See "Selected References" (4). 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 237 

improvement, one may be used at the beginning of a 
practice period and the other at the close. When desired, 
further scales may be formed from the original list. 
These tests are administered and scored much like those 
of Thorndike. 

The Starch English Vocabulary Test— This test dif- 
fers from the preceding in that it does not depend upon 
definitely standardized and evaluated word lists. It con- 
sists of two lists of 100 words each — these having been 
chosen at regular intervals from Webster's "New Inter- 
national Dictionary." This method of selecting words, 
Starch * holds, "yields a fair and representative sampling 
of the entire English vocabulary." The test is, therefore, 
especially adapted to determine the range of the word 
meanings which an individual has mastered. The direc- 
tions given the pupils are as follows : 

Make a check mark ( V ) after each word whose meaning you are 
sure of and which you could use correctly. Write the meaning 
after such other words as you are familiar with but of whose 
meanings you are not quite sure. 

Then you will be asked by the examiner to write the meaning 
after any of the difficult words that you may have checked 
so as to make sure that you did not check any that you did not 
know. If you cannot give a meaning, cross the check mark off. 
Words which are similar to common words but which have entirely 
different meanings will especially be called for, such as, belleric, 
canon, to cree, Mut, peavy, etc. 

A pupil's score is the percentage of words the meanings 
of which he indicates correctly. Tentative standards — 
thus far announced by Starch — are as follows: 

'See "Selected References" (11). 



238 THE READING PROCESS 



SCHOOL 


GRADE OR YEAR 


SCOR 


Elementary 


4 


30 


a 


5 


33 


<c 


6 


36 


a 


7 


39 


(6 


8 


42 


High School 


1 


45 


a 


2 


47 


a 


3 


50 


a 


4 


53 


University 


1 


56 


a 


2 


58 


u 


3 


61 


u 


4 


63 



Tests measuring comprehension of sentences and 
paragraphs. — Although the two processes are intimately 
related it is obviously one thing to recognize word mean- 
ings and quite another to understand sentences and para- 
graphs. The latter is a more difficult and a more complex 
process. As Haggerty points out, "the grammatical rela- 
tion of the words and the range of personal experience 
are determining factors lying outside the limits of mere 
word knowledge. The sentence: 'He found law dear 
and left it cheap/ does not contain a word that is not 
more or less familiar to the twelve-year old child, yet few 
twelve-year olds will have any adequate understanding 
of the passage." Tests measuring comprehension of con- 
nected discourse — sentences and paragraphs — are, there- 
fore, of vital importance. These tests measure compre- 
hension directly by testing the reader's ability to respond 
to what is being read — usually by way of answering ques- 
tions or following directions. The rate of reading usually 
is measured indirectly on the basis of the responses which 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 239 

the reader makes during a given unit of time. The fol- 
lowing tests and scales fall under this head : 

The Thorndike Scales for Measuring the Understand- 
ing of Sentences and Paragraphs. — Two of these scales 
have been developed — Scale Alpha and Scale Alpha 2. 1 
The latter is an improved and extended form of the 
former. We shall, therefore, limit our discussion to this. 
The scale consists of seven sets of sentences or paragraphs 
— each set being accompanied by a series of questions. 
The sets are arranged in the order of increasing difficulty 
— the value of each set having been determined experi- 
mentally as in the case of previous scales. The following 
extract from Set V — Difficulty 8 will serve to illustrate 
the nature of the passages and the questions: 

Read this and then write the answers to 5, 6, 7 and 8. Read 
it again if you need to. 

In Franklin, attendance upon school is required of every 
child between the ages of seven and fourteen on every day 
when school is in session unless the child is so ill as to be 
unable to go to school, or some person in his house is ill with 
a contagious disease, or the roads are impassable. 

5. What is the general topic of the paragraph? 

6. How many cases are stated which make absence excusable? 

7. What kind of illness may permit a boy to stay away from 
school, even though he is not sick himself ? 

8. What condition in a pupil would justify his non-attendance ? 
*See "Selected References" (12). 



240 THE READING PROCESS 

The scoring — as in the case of Scale A2 — is relatively 
simple and objective. The score is based entirely upon 
the quality of the answers to the questions, the time ele- 
ment being ignored. In evaluating the answers the exam- 
iner is guided by a carefully prepared key which contains 
summaries of possible right responses. A pupil's score is 
the value of the most difficult set of which he is able to 
answer at least 80 per cent of the questions. Similarly 
the score of a class is determined by the value of the most 
difficult set which it can read with approximately 80 por 
cent of correct answers. Here again the examiner is 
supplied with a table which greatly facilitates scoring. 
Thorndike's standards of achievement — those for the 
high school grades being provisional estimates only — are 
as follows: 



SCHOOL 


GRADE 


SCORE 


Elemental 


4 


5.25 


a 


5 


5.75 


a 


6 


6.50 


« 


7 


7.00 


« 


8 


7.50 


High School 


1 


7.75 


« 


2 


8.00 


« 


3 


8.25 


« 


4 


8.50 



The Thorndike-McCall Reading Scale for the Under- 
standing of Sentences. — More recently McCall and 
Thorndike have developed a new scale known as the 
Thorndike-McCall Reading Scale for the Understanding 
of Sentences. 1 This consists of ten complete forms or 
tests — one for each month of the school year — Scale 

*See "Selected References" (12, 8). 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 241 

Alpha 2 having been adapted and incorporated as one of 
these forms. Each form or test consists of some twelve 
selections and about thirty-six questions. These are ar- 
ranged in the approximate order of their difficulty, the 
relative difficulties having been determined experimen- 
tally. Thirty minutes are allowed for each test — pupils 
being permitted to read the selections as often as neces- 
sary in order to answer the questions. The following 
selections — upon which questions 1-4 and 31-33 of Form 6 
are based — will serve to illustrate the nature of the test 
materials : 

Read this and then write the answers. Read it again if 
you need to. 

Fred lives in the country. He likes to hunt and fish, and 
has a gun that cost sixteen dollars. His sister Grace keeps 
hens and ducks, and sells the eggs. She is learning to play 
the piano, and goes to Miss Thomas for a lesson every Satur- 
day. She likes music but Fred doesn't. 

1. Write the name of Grace's brother 

2. Write the name of the music teacher 

3. What does Grace keep ? 

4. Write words telling the cost of the gun 



Read this and then write the answers. Read it again if you 
need to. 

However certain it may seem to be that men work only 
because they must, and would avoid labor except for the food, 
clothing and luxuries that are its rewards, the facts may well 
be to the contrary. It can hardly be the case that men dislike 



242 THE READING PROCESS 

work because they wish to be utterly idle. For mere rest, 
mere inactivity, is not commonly enjoyed. To have nothing 
to do is not what men seek. Were that so, we should envy 
the prisoner shut up in his cell. If men had to choose between 
a life spent at eight hours of work daily in a factory and a 
life spent at eight hours of sitting on a throne without 
moving hand or foot, many of them would, after trying both, 
choose the former. Activity of body or mind, at which a man 
can succeed, is, in and of itself, rather enjoyed than dis- 
liked. 

31. What is it that this paragraph says may seem sure, but 
probably is false ? 

32. What, according to the paragraph, has no appeal per se? 

33. What is it the author of the paragraph suspects men might 
choose unless they had tried it ? 



While the scale is elaborate from the standpoint of 
construction, the scoring is very simple. Each test is 
accompanied by specific directions for scoring — including 
a "scoring key" containing samples of correct and incor- 
rect answers. After determining the number of questions 
a pupil has answered correctly, the examiner translates 
this — on the basis of a table — into a "T Score" — this 
being the pupil's score. The class or grade score is found 
by determining the average of the pupils' scores. Upon 
finding the class or grade score the examiner compares 
this — on the basis of a table of grade norms — with the 
norm for the grade in question. 

Each pupil is thereupon compared with an age norm. 
The examiner notes — on the basis of a table which shows 
in terms of months the ages which normally go with the 
several possible T Scores — the reading age which corre- 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 243 

sponds to the T Score of the pupil in question. This he 
divides by the pupil's chronological age — again expressed 
in months. The quotient — multiplied by 100 to avoid 
decimals — is the pupil's "reading quotient." For the 
child with normal reading ability the reading quotient is 
100; for the one with inferior reading ability it is below 
100; and for the one with superior reading ability above 
100. 

In discussing the fact that the scale provides for two 
scores — one for the grade and the other for the age of the 
pupil — the authors point out that: 

There are at least two useful ways of expressing the reading 
ability of a pupil (or of a class). How well a pupil reads is 
shown first by a comparison of his reading score with the norm for 
his grade. The use of this method alone encourages the school 
to retard pupils chronologically either unconsciously or consciously 
in order to give an appearance of high efficiency. Given a suf- 
ficient percentage of over-ageness or under-ageness, almost any 
school can appear efficient or inefficient respectively when com- 
pared with grade standards. 

How well a pupil reads is shown, second, by a comparison of his 
reading score with the norm for his age. This is just what is 
expressed by the reading quotient. Showing as it does what the 
school has accomplished for the pupil by a given age rather than 
a given grade, the reading quotient has very great value, because 
the school cannot raise the reading quotient above 100 nor depress 
it below 100 by creating undue chronological retardation or accel- 
eration respectively. 

Finally, the point of reference and the unit of measure- 
ment are unique in this scale. The former — the reference 
or starting point in scoring — is the average performance 
of twelve-year-olds — children from twelve to thirteen 
years of age. The latter — the unit of measurement — is 
the S. D .-multiplied-by-ten of twelve-year-old children — ■ 



244 THE READING PROCESS 

called T after Thorndike and Terman. Accordingly a 
pupil who makes a scale score of 50 has an ability of 
twelve-year-olds; one who makes a scale score of 40 has 
an ability which is 10 units or 1 S. D. below the average 
ability of twelve-year-olds; and one who makes a scale 
score of 60 has an ability which is 10 units or IS. D. 
above the average ability of twelve-year-olds. While the 
reference point is the average performance of twelve-year- 
olds, the mathematical zero has — for purposes of conven- 
ience — been located 5 S. D. below the average. 

The Haggerty Reading Examination — Sigma i. — This 
examination * — intended for grades 1 to 3 inclusive — 
consists of two tests. The first contains twenty-five items 
or parts, each calling for a definite response. The 
responses make no demands upon the reader's ability to 
express himself in terms of language. All he is required 
to do is to make certain marks. Thus Item 5 consists of 
the picture of a rabbit accompanied by the direction: 
"Find the rabbit's tail and make it longer," and Item 25 
contains a brief description of the interior of a submarine 
accompanied by the direction: "Draw a line under the 
one of these three words" — little, much, none — "that best 
shows the amount of machinery to be seen." The test 
extends over a period of twenty minutes. The second test 
consists of a series of twenty questions each to be an- 
swered by underscoring the word yes or the word no. 
The test extends over a period of two minutes. 

The scoring is simple — each test being accompanied by 
a scoring key and detailed directions. In the case of the 
first test each item counts one point and in the case of the 

*See "Selected' References" (4). 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 245 



second the score is "rights minus wrongs." The following 
grade standards and age norms are available at present: 





Grade Standards 




GRADE 


SCORE : TEST 1 


TEST 2 


1 


4 


2 


2 


12 


8 


3 


16 


14 


4 


20 

Age Norms 


18 


GRADE 


score: test i 


TEST 2 


7 


6 


4 


8 


12 


7 


9 


15 


12 


10 


18 


15 


11 


24 


19 



The Kansas Silent Reading Tests. — This series * con- 
sists of three tests — one for grades three, four, and five; 
another for grades six, seven, and eight; and a third for 
high school pupils. Each test consists of sixteen exercises 
evaluated experimentally and arranged in the order of 
increasing difficulty. The following exercises from Test I 
will serve to illustrate the nature of the tests: 



Value 
1.2 



Value 
4.8 



No. 1 

I have red, green and yellow papers in my hand. 
If I place the red and green papers on the chair, 
which color do I still have in my hand ? 

No. 15 

Fred has eight marbles. Mary said to him : i( II 
you will give me four of your marbles, I will have 
three times as many as you will then have." How 
many marbles do they both have together? 



'See "Selected References" (7). 



246 THE READING PROCESS 

These tests are easily administered. The scoring of 
the results is simple and objective — a pupil's score being 
the sum of the values of the exercises which he succeeds 
in answering correctly in five minutes. "Every answer 
given is counted either wholly right or wholly wrong." 
The following median scores are based upon the measure- 
ment of more than 100,000 children in all parts of the 
country: 



GRADE 


MEDIAN SCORE 


GRADE 


MEDIAN SCORE 


3 


5.3 


8 


19.2 


4 


9.5 


9 


22.9 


5 


13.2 


10 


25.6 


6 


13.9 


11 


26.5 


7 


16.2 


12 


29.7 



The exercises of the Kansas Silent Reading Tests have 
been severely criticized. It has been pointed out that 
they are puzzles rather than typical reading selections 
and that they represent tasks the solution of which calls 
for special knowledge and for abilities quite different 
from those entering into the normal process of inter- 
preting the printed page. These criticisms are probably 
— in part at least — well taken, and the author has been 
quite generous in admitting them. He points out, how- 
ever, that it seemed practically impossible at the time the 
scale was developed to obviate the defects in question 
except at the expense of his main objective — a scale 
which would measure comprehension in a thoroughly ob- 
jective manner. 

Monroe's Standardized Silent Reading Tests. — Mon- 
roe 1 has more recently developed a reading scale which 

*See "Selected References" (9). 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 247 



represents an attempt to eliminate some of the defects 
of the Kansas Silent Reading Tests. In choosing the 
exercises for the scale the author proceeded on the 
assumption "that ability to understand sentences and 
paragraphs depends in part upon one's store of infor- 
mation.^ He, therefore, confined himself as much as 
possible to the field of general reading, avoiding "par- 
ticular fields such as Arithmetic and Geography." The 
following exercises from Test I will serve to illustrate the 
nature of the selections: 



Rate 
Value 
8 



Rate 
Value 

14 
(141) 



No. 1 

"I am not playing, little girl," said 

the squirrel. "I am running to my home 

in the hollow tree. Don't you hear my 

babies calling me ? I must feed them." 

Where was the home of the squirrel? 

In the 

No. 16 

By the sound of the birch he urged 
some tardy loiterer along the flowery 
path of knowledge. Truth to say he was 
a very conscientious man and ever bore 
in mind the maxim : "Spare the rod 
and spoil the child." 

Ichabod Crane was a school-teacher. 
If you think he spoiled his scholars, 
draw a line under rod; if he did not, 
draw a line under child. 

rod scholars child teacher 



Compre- 
hension 
Value 
1 



Compre- 
hension 
Value 
4 



The exercises were evaluated in the same manner as 
those of the Kansas Silent Reading Tests — the results 
being, however, based upon more than three times as 
many cases. The methods of scoring, too, are practically 



248 THE READING PROCESS 

identical aside from the fact that Monroe makes provision 
for a special rate score — this being obtained by dividing 
the total number of words in the exercises read by five. 
This score represents the number of words read per 
minute but, as Monroe points out, it is not comparable 
with the usual rate scores since the selections vary in 
difficulty, and since the time consumed in answering the 
questions is included. The following standard median 
scores have thus far been submitted : 

GRADE MEDIAN SCORE : RATE 

3 
4 
5 
6 

n 

9 
10 
11 
12 

Tests measuring mastery of word meanings and com- 
prehension of sentences and paragraphs. — Tests which 
fall under this class combine in one series of tests the 
three functions — measuring mastery of word meanings, 
comprehension of sentences, and comprehension of para- 
graphs — covered by the last two classes of tests. The 
results are expressed in terms of one score. 

The Haggerty Reading 1 Examination — Sigma 3.— 
This examination x — intended for grades 6 to 12 inclusive 
— consists of three tests: one for vocabulary, one for 
sentences, and one for paragraphs. The first contains a 

'See "Selected References" (4). 



RATE 


COMPREHENSION 


57 


8.7 


83 


15 


91 


20 


96 


21 


98 


25 


108 


28 


87 


22 


81 


25 


88 


26.4 


89 


27 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 249 

series of fifty words each followed by four meanings — one 
true and the others false — the reader being required to 
underscore the true one. Five minutes are allowed for the 
test. The second test consists of a series of forty ques- 
tions each followed by the words yes and no. The reader 
answers these by underscoring the appropriate word. 
Three minutes are allowed for this test. The last test 
consists of a series of seven paragraphs each followed by 
several series of statements and terms — each series con- 
sisting of three or four members — one true and the others 
false. The reader is required to check the true statements 
and to underscore the true terms. Twenty minutes are 
allowed for this test. 

This examination — like Sigma 1— is easily scored. It is 
accompanied by a carefully prepared scoring key and 
explicit directions for scoring. The score for the first 
test is the "number right" ; for the second it is "rights 
minus wrongs"; and for the third, "twice the number 
right." The final score is the sum of the three. The fol- 
lowing grade standards have been submitted : 

GRADE SCORE 

5 31 

6 50 

n 68 

8 76 

9 84 

10 90 

11 96 

12 102 

Tests measuring rate and comprehension of reading 
extending over a given unit of time. — Tests falling under 
this class measure rate and comprehension of reading 



250 THE READING PROCESS 

separately, the result for each being expressed in a dis- 
tinct score. Rate scores are usually expressed in terms 
of the average number of words read per second or per 
minute. Comprehension scores are expressed more vari- 
ously since methods of measuring comprehension differ 
materially. Most commonly, however, these scores are 
expressed in terms of percentages — the percentage of 
questions answered correctly, the percentage of points 
adequately reproduced, the percentage of words used 
correctly in the reproduction as compared with the orig- 
inal number, or a percentage involving a combination 
of these factors. Occasionally the rate and comprehen- 
sion scores are combined to form a single index of reading 
efficiency. 

The Starch Silent Reading Test. — This test 1 consists 
of nine selections — one for each of the eight elementary 
grades and one for high school pupils. These selections 
were chosen from representative readers and are supposed 
to increase in difficulty by approximately equal steps. In 
taking the test pupils are allowed to read for thirty sec- 
onds. Experimental evidence led Starch to believe that a 
short interval such as this would afford fully as reliable 
indices of reading ability as longer ones. The test ex- 
tends over two days — the regular grade selection being 
read the first day and the one immediately below this 
on the second. The rate score is expressed in terms of 
the average number of words read per second in the two 
tests. Immediately upon the reading the pupils are asked 
to reproduce in writing as much as possible of the mate- 
rials read. The comprehension score is represented by the 

*See "Selected References" (11). 



RATE 




COMPREHENSION 


(words per second) 


(words written) 


1.5 




15 


1.8 




20 


2.1 




24 


2.4 




28 


2.8 




33 


3.2 




38 


3.6 




45 


4.0 




50 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 251 

average number of words — words which express essential 
ideas, all others having been eliminated by the examiner 
— used in the two reproductions. Starch feels that this 
method of reproduction is more objective and fully as 
reliable as any other. The following standard scores for 
rate and comprehension have been submitted: 

grade 

1 

2 

3 

4 j 

5 

6 

7 

8 \ 

Brown's Silent Reading Test. — This test 1 is intended 
for elementary pupils above the second grade and for 
high school students. The same selection is used through- 
out. The reading continues for one minute and the 
pupil's score is the average number of words read per 
second. Immediately upon the reading pupils are "re- 
quired to reproduce in writing as much as they can re- 
member of what they have read." The reproductions 
are scored for both quantity and quality. This task is 
greatly facilitated by a key which contains an enumera- 
tion of the essential ideas which should be reproduced. 
The following paragraphs, together with the correspond- 
ing portion of the key, will serve to illustrate the nature 
of the test: 

*See "Selected References" (1). 



252 THE READING PROCESS 

THE LONG SLIDE 

The boys and girls who live in a certain part of a small 
town in the country several miles from any village attend 
school in a little red schoolhouse known as the Long Hill 
school. 

It has this name because it is situated on the top of a very 
long, steep hill. Ever since anyone can remember, the scholars 
of the Long Hill school have always had time to slide down 
the hill just once at recess in winter and get back to the 
schoolhouse before the bell rings to call them back again into 
school. They can go down very rapidly, but it takes a long 
time to walk back. 

Last Monday morning Frank Lane appeared at school with 
a fine, new sled. It was a double-runner which his uncle, who 
owns a carriage factory in the city, had given him. He named 
his new sled the Simoon and almost had a fight with Tom 
Smith, who said it was foolish to put such a name on a 
sled, but he kept on calling it the Simoon. 

THE KEY 

1. Some children in the country attend school. 

2. The schoolhouse is known as the Long Hill School. 

3. It is situated on top of a long hill. 

4. The pupils slide down hill once at recess in winter. 

5. One day a boy brought to school a new sled. 

6. His uncle had given it to him. 

7. He named it the Simoon. 

8. He almost had a fight with another boy. 

9. This boy said the name was foolish. 

In scoring the examiner first determines the number of 
points reproduced and expresses this "as a percentage 
of the total number in the portion of the selection read" 
— this being designated as "quantity of reproduction." 
He thereupon reexamines these points retaining this time 
only those ideas "which are entirely correct in every re- 
spect and of which every detail is reproduced." The 
number of points meeting these requirements is again ex- 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 253 

pressed "as a percentage of the total number in the por- 
tion of the selection" read — this being called "quality of 
reproduction." The final comprehension score is repre- 
sented by the average of the quality and quantity scores. 
Brown considers this method of scoring comprehension 
especially valuable because of the possibilities which it 
affords in "diagnosing individual deficiencies." Provision 
is made, finally, for an efficiency score — the product of the 
rate and comprehension scores. The following tentative 
standards based upon the attainment of "the best class 
yet found in any grade" have been submitted: 

GRADE 

3 

4 
5 

6 

7 
8 

The Courtis Standard Research Test in Silent Read- 
ing — Test Number 2. — This test * is intended for grades 
2 to 6 inclusive. One selection — a chapter from a story 
in a children's magazine — is used throughout. The test 
is designed to measure the simplest phases of silent read- 
ing — the rate and "the comprehension of the essential 
elements of a passage in their essential relationship." The 
test is divided into two parts. In the first part the 
pupils are given three minutes during which they are to 
read as much of the selection as possible, the directions 
being as follows: 

*See "Selected References" (2). 



RATE 


COMPREHENSION 


EFFICIENCY 


SCORE 


SCORE 


SCORE 


3.32 


46 


127.82 


3.55 


65 


217.13 


4.49 


61 


290.96 


4.54 


68 


294.95 


4.65 


87 


322.33 


4.84 


79 


323.57 



254 THE READING PROCESS 

Read silently, and only as fast as you can get the meaning; for 
when you have finished, you will be asked to answer questions 
about what you have read. You will be marked for both how 
much you read and how well you understand it, but it will be 
better to get the meaning of the story than to read too fast. 

At the end of every thirty seconds, at a signal given 
by the examiner the pupils indicate automatically with a 
pencil mark the point at which they have arrived. This 
makes possible a comparison of the rates of reading 
at different intervals of the test period, a factor which 
Courtis considers of marked importance in analyzing read- 
ing rate. The rate score thus obtained is expressed in 
terms of the number of words read per minute. 

The second part of the test is intended to test compre- 
hension. The test selection is now divided into para- 
graphs, each being followed by five simple questions — 
questions which are to be answered by yes or no. The 
following paragraphs together with the questions will 
serve to illustrate the nature of this part of the test: 

Up at the house everyone was busy too. This year the 
whole Bennett family was going to spend the Fourth of July 
in the woods. They planned on taking along many baskets 
of good things to eat. 

1. Was the picnic to be held in the woods? 

2. Were they going on the third of July? 

3. Was the whole family going to the picnic? 

4. Were they to take along good things to eat? 

5. Was everyone out at the barn with John? 



The little Bennetts were to wade in the brook and help 
roast corn and potatoes in a bonfire. They thought this would 
be great fun, for they could not do these things in the big 
city where they lived. 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 255 

6. Did the Bennetts live in the country? 

7. Was there to be a bonfire at the picnic? 

8. Were the children to help roast corn? 

9. Were they told not to wade in the brook? 

10. Could they do these things in the city? 



Five minutes are allowed for these exercises — the pupil 
indicating at the end of each minute the point at which 
he has arrived. The following directions are given : 

Answer as many questions as you can in the time allowed, but 
it is better to have the answers right than to try a great many 
questions. Do not guess at the answers. If you do not remember 
what the story said, read the paragraph just above the question 
again and again until you find the right answer. There are four 
pages of questions. As soon as you finish one, begin another. 

In order that the pupils may understand exactly what is 
expected of them, these exercises are preceded by drill 
on a preliminary paragraph. The exercises are supposed 
to measure both the "facility" and the "accuracy" of com- 
prehension — the former being indicated "by the total 
number of questions" answered and the latter by the "per 
cent" which "the difference between the right and the 
wrong answers is of the right answers." 

The tests are available in two sections — one making 
about the same demands upon the pupil as the other. 
The sections may, therefore, be used alternately one at 
the beginning and the other at the close of a semester or 
year. 

Gray's Standard Silent Reading Tests. — The subject 
matter of these tests 1 consists of three selections — one for 
grades 2 and 3; another for grades 4, 5, and 6; and the 
third for grades 7 and 8. The passages were selected 

"See "Selected References" (3). 



256 THE READING PROCESS 

experimentally and with special reference to the interests 
and reading capacities of the several groups. As in the 
case of the oral reading tests, each pupil is examined 
individually. In measuring the rate of reading the exam- 
iner records the time required for the reading of one hun- 
dred words. Each selection is, therefore, printed in three 
sections — the middle one containing exactly one hundred 
words. These sections are separated in such a manner 
that the examiner can easily determine the moment when 
the reader moves his eyes from one section to the next. 
The rate score is expressed in terms of the number of 
words read per second. The following rate scores repre- 
sent the achievements of 2654 pupils: 



GRADE 


SELECTION 


SCORE 


2 


I 


1.50 


3 


I 


2.30 


4 


II 


2.20 


5 


II 


2.57 


6 


II 


2.79 


7 


III 


2.69 


8 


III 


2.87 



Progress from grade to grade is shown best when the 
scores are represented graphically as in Chart V. For 
the second and third grades the curve is to be inter- 
preted in terms of the figures at the left of the diagram; 
for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, in terms of those on 
the dotted line on the left between grades three and four; 
and for the seventh and eighth grades, in terms of those 
on the dotted line on the right between grades seven and 
eight. This readjustment in values is necessary since the 
three selections are adapted to the maturity of the respec- 
tive groups. 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 257 

Comprehension is measured in two ways. First, im- 
mediately upon the reading the pupil is asked to repro- 
duce — orally in the case of the second and third grades, 
and in writing in the case of the remaining grades — as 
much as he can of what has been read. In scoring this 







i 

i 

• 
■ 

• 

3J21 






i 

i 

• 

; 
2J97 


• 


4.00 




i 
i 

* 

i 

i 

• 
• 






i 




3.00 




2.121 






1.J97 






\J/^ 






i 














* 

* 
t 




2.00 




1.121 






J9*7 






\ 






t 




1.00 




% 
l 
• 
1 
1 
I 

! 






« 

i 

i 
• 

i 
t 

i 

1 





2nd 



3rd 



4th 



5th 



6th 



7th 



8th 



Chart V. Progress of 2654 Pupils in Rate of Silent Reading 



part of the test the examiner checks from the pupil's 
reproduction all wrong statements, all irrelevant state- 
ments, and all repetitions, and computes the percentage 
which the remaining words are of the total number of 
words in the selection. In the second part of the test 
the pupil is required to answer ten questions. A credit 
of ten points is given for each question correctly an- 
swered. The final index of comprehension is the average 
of these two scores. The following scores represent the 
achievements of the 2654 pupils mentioned above: 



258 



THE READING PROCESS 



GRADE 
2 

3 

4 
5 
6 

7 
8 



In order to indicate progress from grade to grade the 
scores are again represented graphically as in -Chart VI— 
the curve being interpreted in the same manner as that 
for rate. 



SELECTION 


COMPREHENSION 




SCORE 


I 


32 


I 


37 


II 


29 


II 


32 


II 


39 


III 


22 


III 


27 



60. 



50. 



40. 



30. 













• 

i 
• 






4812 






♦ 
2711 






i 
• 






i 






i 

i 






; ^ 






38|2 






^YCA 






• 
• 






i 

• 
• 

j 

• 






28>2 ^ 






7]1 






1 

1 






I 
i 
i 

t 
i 






1812 






l 
. 1 





2nd 



3rd 



4th 



5th 



6th 



7th 



8th 



Chart VI. Progress of 2654 Pupils in Quality of Silent 

Reading 

Present status of test movement. — The long and varied 
list of reading tests which we have reviewed bears strik- 
ing testimony to the activity and the ingenuity of inves- 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 259 

tigators. The whole testing movement is of course still 
in its infancy. Ten years ago there were no reading tests. 
The tests and scales which are available to-day consti- 
tute, therefore, in all probability a mere beginning. But 
their use represents a marked advance over the empirical 
procedure which it is rapidly supplanting. Indeed, so 
serviceable are these tests that they have become quite 
indispensable to teachers and supervisors in dealing with 
the various reading situations confronting them, such as 
determining differences in reading capacity, measuring 
the progress of pupils from grade to grade, comparing the 
achievements of individuals and groups of individuals, 
and evaluating methods of procedure and principles of 
practice. 

SELECTED REFERENCES 

1. Brown, H. A. — The Measurement of Ability to Bead; N. H. 
Department of Public Instruction, Bureau of Research, 
Concord, 1916. 
Silent Beading Tests; N. H. Department of Public In- 
struction, Bureau of Research, Concord, N. H. 

The Measurement of the Efficiency of Instruction in 



Reading"; Elementary School Teacher, XIY, 477-490. 

2. Courtis, S. A. — Standard Besearch Tests in Silent Beading; 

Detroit, Mich. 
"The Problem of Measuring Ability in Silent Read- 
ing"; School Board Journal, May, 1917. 

3. Gray, W. S. — Gray's Oral Beading Test, and Gray's Standard 

Silent Beading Tests; School of Education, University of 
Chicago. 
"Studies of Elementary School Reading through Stand- 
ardized Tests"; Supplementary Educational Monographs, 
I, No. 1. 

-"Methods of Testing Reading"; Elementary School 



Journal, XVI, 231-246. 



260 THE READING PROCESS 



"A Study of the Emphasis on Various Phases of Read- 
ing Instruction in Two Cities" ; Elementary School Journal, 
XVII, 178-186. 

"A Cooperative Study of Reading in 11 Cities of 



Northern Illinois"; Elementary School Journal, XYI, 250 
265. 

-"Reading in the Elementary Schools of Indianapolis"; 



Elementary School Journal, XIX. 
Haggerty, M. E. — "The Ability to Read: Its Measurement 
and Some Facts concerning It"; Indiana University Studies, 
No. 34. 

Haggerty 's Visual Vocabulary Test for Grades 1 and 2; 

Bureau of Cooperative Research, University of Minnesota, 
Minneapolis. 

-"Scales for Reading Vocabulary of Primary Children" ; 



Elementary School Journal, XVII, 106-115. 

-Haggerty Reading Examination, Sigma 1 and Sigma S; 



World Book Company. 

Jones, R. G. — The Jones Scale for Teaching and Testing 
Elementary Reading; Cleveland, Ohio. 

"Standard Vocabulary"; Fourteenth Yearbook of the 

National Society for the Study of Education, Pt. I. 

Judd, Chas. H. — "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools" ; 
Cleveland Foundation Survey Report, Russell Sage Founda- 
tion, New York. 

"Reading Tests"; Elementary School Teacher, XIV, 

365-373. 

Kelley, F. J. — The Kansas Silent Reading Tests; Bureau of 
Educational Measurements and Standards, State Normal 
School, Emporia, Kan. 

"The Kansas Silent Reading Tests"; Journal of Educa- 
tional Psychology, VII, 63-80. 

'Reading"; Monroe, Be Voss, and Kelley — Educational 



Tests and Measurements; Houghton Mifflin Company, 1917. 
Chapter 3. 

McCall, W. A. — "Proposed Uniform Method of Scale Con- 
struction with Application to a New Reading Scale"; 
Teachers College Record, XXII, No. 1, 31-51. 

How to Measure in Education; The Macmillan Com- 
pany, 1921. 



TESTS FOR MEASURING READING ABILITY 261 

Monroe, W. S. — Standardized Silent Reading Tests; Bureau of 
Educational Research, University of Illinois, Urbana. 

"Monroe's Standardized Silent Reading Tests"; Journal 

of Educational Psychology, IX, 303 ff. 

"A Report of the Use of the Kansas Silent Reading 



Tests with Over 100,000 Children"; Journal of Educational 
Psychology, VIII, 600-608. 

-Measuring the Results of Teaching; Houghton Mifflin 



Company, 1918. Chapters 2 and 3. 

10. Otis, A. S. — "Considerations concerning the Making of a 

Scale for the Measurement of Reading Ability" ; Pedagogical 
Seminary, XXIII, 528-549. 

11. Starch, D. — Silent Reading Tests; University of Wisconsin, 

Madison. 

English Vocabulary Test; University of Wisconsin, 

Madison. 

-"The Measuring of Efficiency in Reading"; Journal of 



Educational Psychology, VI, 1-24. 

-"Reliability of Reading Tests"; School and Society, 



VIII, 86-90. 

12. Thorndike, E. L. — Improved Scales for Word Knowledge or 
Visual Vocabulary — Scale A2 and Scale B; Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University, New York. 

"The Measurement of Ability to Read"; Teachers Col- 

lege Record, September, 1914, and November, 1916. 
-* Improved Scale for Measuring the Understanding of 



Sentences and Paragraphs — Scale Alpha and Scale Alpha 2; 
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. 

-"An Improved Scale for Measuring Ability in Read- 



ing"; Teachers College Record, November, 1915, and Janu- 
ary, 1916. 

-and McCall, W. A. — ThorndiJce-McCall Reading Scale 



for the Understanding of Sentences; Teachers College, 
Columbia University, New York. 
13. Uhl, W. L.— "The Use of the Results of Reading Tests as a 
Basis for Planning Remedial Work"; Elementary School 
Journal, XVII, 266-275. 



INDEX 



Abell, Adelaide, 153, 177 

Age and accomplishment, influ- 
ence of upon various aspects 
of reading process, 123-126 

Ahrens, 109, 129 

Aldis, H. G., 60-61, 62 

Alphabet, evolution of, 35-54 
character of a phonetic, 64 
Egyptian, 54; English, 65-77 
Chinese, 47; Landa, 40; Phoe- 
nician, 54-56 

Alphabets, ancient, 52-54; origin 
of modern, 54-57; unphonetic 
character of modern, 63-64 

American Indian, picture writing 
of, 29-33 

Animal communication, 4 

Animal cries, as expressions of 
emotional attitudes, 4 

Apparatus, the Dodge photo- 
graphic, 113 

Bain, 145 

Baldwin, 146 

Ballet, 145 

Bawden, 146 

Blend, in phonetics, 104-106 

Bobbitt, Franklin, 224 

Book, evolution of, 57-62 

Brinton, D. G., 39-40 

Brown, H, A., 259 

Brown's Silent Reading Test, 251- 
253; tentative standards ob- 
tained through, 253 

Budge, E. A. W., 62 

Burbank, E. D., 101-102, 103-104, 
107 

Buswell, G. T., 113, 129 

Cattell, J. M., 134-135, 140, 142, 150 
Chinese, recent alphabet, 47; lan- 
guage, 43-48 



Clever Hans, seeming language 
behavior of, 3 

Clodd, Edmond, 27-28, 41, 54-56, 
62 

Codex, the, 59 

Collins, J. V., 86 

Comprehension, development of, 
176 

Consonant digraphs, English, 103 

Consonant sounds, not repre- 
sented by English alphabet, 69- 
70 

Consonant system, English, 69-70 

Consonants, English, 103 

Conventionalization, on ideo- 
graphic level, 33-36 

Coster, Lourens Janzoon, 60 

Courten, H. C, 147, 150 

Courtis, S. A., 158-160, 177, 259 

Courtis Standard Research Test 
in Silent Reading, 253-255 

Curtis, H. S., 147, 150 

Dearborn, W. F., 113, 116, 117, 121, 
127, 129, 141-142, 150, 155, 178 

Delabarre, E. B., 110, 129 

Digraphs, irregularities in English, 
68 

Diphthongs, English, 103 

Dodge, Raymond, 110-111, 113, 
117, 129, 146 

Egger, 145 

Eliot, Chas. W., 212 

English spelling, social bearings of 
present system, 74-75 

English syllables, phonetic charac- 
ter of, 100-102 

Erdmann and Dodge, 109, 116, 
129, 135, 140, 142, 150 

Evans, A. J., 55, 62 



263 



264 



INDEX 



Family names, in phonetics, 105 

Feeling attitudes, communication 
of, through animal cries, 4; com- 
munication of, on prelanguage 
level, 5 

Fixation pauses, 108, 114-118; 
average number per line, 115- 
117; average duration of, 117- 
118; location of, 121, 123. 

Ford, P. L., 224 

Fovea centralis, 132 

Francis, L. G., 63 

Galliland, A. R., 182-183, 197 

Gesture stage, in development of 
child's language, 7 

Gestures, as symbols on second 
level of language development, 
5-6; in human speech, 8 

Giles, H. A., 63 

Goldscheider and Mueller, 138- 
139, 150 

Graphic language symbols, stages 
in the evolution of, 22-24 

Gray, C. T\, 113, 118, 120-121, 
125-126, 129, 133, 136-137, 149- 
150, 181-182, 197 

Gray, W. S., 163-171, 176, 178, 181, 
184-185, 186-187, 197 

Gray's Standard Oral Reading 
Test, 230-233; average class 
scores obtained through, 232 

Gray's Standard Silent Reading 
Test, 255-258; rate scores ob- 
tained through, 256; compre- 
hension scores obtained through, 
258 

Gutenberg, Johann, 60 

Haggerty, M. E., 238, 260 

Haggerty Reading Examination, 
Sigma 1, 244-245; grade stand- 
ards obtained through, 245; 
Sigma 3, 249; grade standards 
obtained through, 249 

Haggerty Scales for Reading Vo- 
cabulary of Primary Children, 
229-230 

Haggerty Visual Vocabulary 
Scales, 236-237 

Hardy, Geo. E., 211, 224 



Helpers, in phonetics, 105 

Hiragana, Japanese, 48 

Hoe, Robert, 63 

Hoffman, W. J., 27, 35-36, 39, 41, 

63 
Homophones, 38, 44, 45-46 
Huey, E. B, 15-16, 18-19, 21, 41, 

63, 107, 110, 116, 117, 121, 129, 

142-143, 144, 149, 151, 154-155, 

178, 181, 224 

Ideograph, the, 30-33; in the 
Chinese language, 45 

Individual differences in reading 
ability, as revealed by the in- 
vestigation of eye movement, 
126-127; due to native capacity, 
173 

Inner speech in reading, 144-150; 
experimental study of, 145-150; 
elimination of, 148; reduction 
of, 149-150 

Interfixation movements, 108; 
character of, 114 

Irregularities in English spelling, 
nature and extent of, 65-74; 
causes of, 71-74; social bear- 
ings of, 74-77; movement to 
eliminate, 77-87 

Japanese language, 48-50; sylla- 
bles of, 51 

Javal, Emile, 108, 116, 129 

Johnson, C, 224 

Johnson, Doctor, influence of, 
upon English spelling, 72-73 

Jones, R. G., 260 

Jones Scale for Teaching and 
Testing Elementary Reading, 
227-229; average scores ob- 
tained through, 228 

Jones word lists, analysis of the, 
101 

Judd, Chas. H., 11-12, 17, 21, 130, 
151, 178, 185-186, 197, 260 

Kansas Silent Reading Tests, 161, 
245-246; median scores obtained 
through, 346 

Katakana, Japanese, 48 

Kelley, J. F, 260 



INDEX 



265 



King, Irving, 171-172, 178 
Klapper, Paul, 107, 224 
Krapp, G. P., 76 

Lamare, 109, 130 

Language behavior, reading a 
form of, 1; genuine, limited to 
the human race, 2 

Language development, in the 
child, 6; continuous and pro- 
gressive, 8; levels of, 5-6 

Language, evolution of spoken, 
1-20; evolution of written, 22- 
62; social origin and function 
of, 20 

Letters and letter complexes, 
dominating, 139; characteris- 
tic, 141 

Letters, determining and indif- 
ferent, 139 

Literature, of childhood, 218; in- 
creasingly liberal definition of, 
219 

Longford, J. H., 63 

Lotze, 145 

Lounsbury, Thos. R., 66-71, 87 

MacCauley, Clay, 63 

Macula lutea, 132 

Mahoney, J. J., 224 

Mallery, G., 29, 30, 40 

Matthews, Brander, 72-73 

McCall, W. A., 260 

McGuffey readers, 209-210 

McLeod, L. S., 162, 178 

Mead, C. D., 183-184, 197 

Meaning, nature of, 8-20 

Meanings, how acquired by words, 
9-13 

Messmer, O., 139-140, 151 

Methods of teaching beginners to 
read, 88-107; alphabet, 89; an- 
alytic, 88; analytic-synthetic, 89- 
95; current, 97-99; modern, 89- 
95; phonetic, 90-92; phrase, 93 
sentence, 93-94; story, 94-95 
synthetic, 88; thought, 89 
word, 92-93 

Mnemonics, 25-28 

Monroe, W. S., 161-162, 178, 261 



Monroe's Standardized Silent 
Reading Tests, 246-248; stand- 
ard median scores obtained 
through, 248 

Nahua, manuscripts how made, 
57; rebus writing in manuscripts 
of, 36-40 

N. E. A., spelling simplifications 
adopted by, 78 

New England Primer, 198 

Notched sticks, as mnemonics, 27 

Oberholtzer, E. E., 177, 178 
O'Brien, J. A., 129-130, 150-151 
Oral reading, and tradition, 179; 
as related to training in ex- 
pression, 180-181 ; development 
of rate in, 174; improvement in 
lower grades, 165; objective 
character of, 180; place of, on 
school program, 190-193; recent 
criticism of, 181 
Otis, A. S., 261 

Paper, introduction of, 59-60 

Paulhan, 146 

Perception time, in reading, 118 

Perceptual process in reading, 137- 
144 

Perceptual span in reading, ef- 
fect of practice upon, 136-137 

Petrie, F., 55, 63 

Philological Association, Ameri- 
can, 77 

Philological Society, of London, 
77 

Phonetic facts and principles, 102- 
104 

Phonetic methods of teaching be- 
ginning reading, two types of, 
104-106 

Phonetic stage, in evolution of 
written language, 42-57 

Phonetics, basis of, 99-102; vary- 
ing emphases given to, in cur- 
rent methods of teaching begin- 
ning reading, 97-99 

Phonograms, letters as, 50; repre- 
senting English sounds, 103; 
syllables as, 47; words as, 43 



266 



INDEX 



Pictograph, the, 28-30 

Picture writing, 22-35; among 

Chinese, 45 
Pintner, R., 148-150, 182 
Printing, improvement of, 61-62; 

introduction in America, 61; 

invention of, 60-61 

Quantz, J. A., 135, 153, 178, 181 
Quipu, as a mnemonic, 26-27 

Rate and comprehension in read- 
ing, early investigation of, 152- 
155; recent investigation of, 
155-173; relation "between, 177 

Rawlings, Gertrude, 63 

Readers, objective and subjective, 
140 

Reading, differences between oral 
and silent, 127-128, 178-197; 
needed adjustments in teaching 
of, 189-196 

Reading ability, variation in, 126, 
173 

Reading materials, 198-224; criti- 
cism of nonliterary, 211-213; 
drawn from special fields, 220, 
224; gradual secularization of, 
201 ; literary character of re- 
cent, 218; nonliterary character 
of some current, 219; religious 
character of early, 198 

Rebus writing, during transition 
from picture writing to phonetic 
writing, 37-40 

Reeder, R. R., 199-200, 206, 225 

Return sweep, in eye movement, 
108; character of, 114 

Ribot, 145 

Rogers, W. R, 63 

Roll, the, 58 

Romanes, G. J., 152, 178 

Rouge, de, Emanuel, 55 

Ruediger, W. C, 132-133, 151 

Rust, H. G., 63 

Schmidt, W. A., 113, 116-117, 121- 
123, 127-128, 129, 151, 186-189, 
197 

School readers, Bingham's, 205; 



character of basic series of, 223; 
character of mid-century, 209 ; 
Cobb's, 208; current, 217-220; 
early, 204-209; future of, 222- 
224; late nineteenth and early 
twentieth century, 210-217 ; 
Lindley Murray's, 206; McGuf- 
fey's, 209-210; Pierpont's, 207; 
special and supplementary, 220- 
222; Webster's, 205 

Secor, W. B., 148, 151 

Simplified Spelling Board, 78-84; 
activities of, 80; jorganization 
and membership of, 78; policy 
of, 79; rules adopted by, 81-84 

Simplified spelling movement, 
progress of, 85 

Simplified Spelling Society of 
Great Britain, 79, 86 

Silent letters, 70-71 

Silent reading, careful and nor- 
mal, 158, 175; comprehension 
in, 168; development of rate in, 
174-176; place on school pro- 
gram, 193-194; relation between 
rate and comprehension in, 170 

Skimming, investigation of, 196 

Spelling reform, 75-85 

Starch, D., 160, 178, 261 

Starch English Vocabulary Test, 
237-238; tentative standards ob- 
tained through, 238 

Starch Silent Reading Test, 250- 
251; standard scores obtained 
through, 251 

Stout, G. F., 21 

Strieker, 145 

Stumpf, 146 

Sweet, Henry, 87, 107 

Syllabic level, in evolution of 
phonetic writing, 48-50 

Symbolization on ideographic 
level, 34-35 

Symbols and meanings, 88 

Tablet, the, 57-58 
Taylor, Isaac, 40, 63 
Test movement in reading, pres- 
ent status of, 258-259 
Tests, measuring mastery of 



INDEX 



267 



words as phonograms, 226-234; 
measuring mastery of word 
meanings, 234-238 ; measuring 
comprehension of sentences and 
paragraphs, 238-248 ; measuring 
mastery of word meanings and 
comprehension of sentences and 
paragraphs, 248-249 ; measuring 
rate and comprehension of 
reading extending over a given 
unit of time, 249-258 

Thomas, Calvin, 75, 87 

Thorndike, E. L., 261 

Thorndike Scales for Measuring 
the Understanding of Sentences 
and Paragraphs, 239-240; stand- 
ards of achievement obtained 
through, 240 

Thorndike Visual Vocabulary 
Scales, 234-236 

Thorndike-McCall Reading Scale 
for the Understanding of Sen- 
tences, 240-244 

Transition, from picture writing 
to phonetic writing, 35-40 

Uhl, W. L., 261 

Unit of perception, in case of 
rapid readers, 123 

Visual field, in reading, 132; 
Ruediger's investigation of, 132- 
133 



Vowel characters representing 

several sounds, 66-67 
Vowel digraphs, 103 
Vowel system, English, 66-69; 

Spanish, 69 
Vowels, English, 103 



Waldo, K. D., 155-157, 178 

Watson, J. B., 9-10, 21 

Webster, Noah, 225 

Webster's Elementary Spelling 
Book, 202 

Webster's Reader, 205 

Wells, G. P., 225 

Whipple, G. M., 136, 151, 196, 
197 

Word and sentence recognition, 
13-19; processes entering into, 
13-19 

Word meanings, processes enter- 
ing into recognition and inter- 
pretation of, 13-19; source of, 
9-13 

Writing, ancient systems of, 52- 
54 

Written language, evolution of, 
22-62 

Wundt, William M., 21 



Zeitler, J., 139, 151 



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